Everybody Needs Somebody, REDONE!
by Love Your Shotgun
Summary: Alright, here's my second try at a failed SiriusOC. I changed a few names and characters, and I think this one will be loads better than my first attempt. So if you're really up to it, go ahead and read it. UPDATED!
1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:** Right then! Hi, everyone! I doubt anyone's sticking with me this long, since I haven't written anyhting worth reading since like... '04? I dunno. But anyways, I'm re-writing "Everybody Needs Somebody." I've changed the plot some, changed a few characters, and the original outcome. Yesterday I just had a huge epiphany after I finished a week of reading _Harry Potter_. I read the last three books in a week. Then I remembered this story and I had to write it over again. I think I owed it to myself. Anyway, it doesn't really matter to me if you absolutely loathe this, I wrote it for me and me only. So there. And if you **do** enjoy this, then tell me, please. I like positive feedback & constructive criticism. I guess that's it. So, here's my second go at a Sirius romance story. Enjoy!

Thinking it over, I could've changed a lot of things in my life. Studying harder would've helped, obeying the rules too. But despite the fact that I didn't do the "right thing" at every given opportunity, I have still managed to live an incredibly successful life. Though I did not get to see him grow up, I have had the immense joy of seeing my nephew smile. My brother and the best friend I ever had were married, not to mention I had a magnificent wedding with the love of my life. We never had children in the short time we spent together, but those thirty-five months of wedded bliss were enough to last a lifetime for us both. I could have changed many things in my life. They might have even changed the fate of those whom I loved.

Like any human being, I have my regrets. Most of them insignificant, like "I should have told my mother _I_ took her jewellery to school and then lost it. The house elf didn't steal it," or "She should've known that her dress _did_ make her look fat." I think, however, the one mistake I made that matters was not telling my husband how much I loved him everyday. He was perfect everyday, even if he nearly set our flat on fire, even if he accidentally sold my favourite china, or asked why I couldn't be more like my sister-in-law. Even when he was absolutely horrible to me, I adored him. But a day didn't go by in our relationship when I wondered why he would even consider me. I wasn't worthy of his love. He worshipped me and made me feel more wanted and loved than I had ever felt before. And I always wondered, _"Why me? He must be under the Imperius Curse to love me the way he does."_ After the birth of our nephew, I asked him the question that had plagued me for years. His reply was simple.

"You saved me."

And the more I thought about it, the more I had realised he was right. I had saved him. His family abandoned him, they abhorred him for being the person he was. Of course, he had had friends like my brother to keep him from going off the edge, but he told me it was the love I always gave him that kept him sane. But as much as I had saved him, he saved me as well. Though my problems were nowhere near as colossal as his, he always reassured me with a pat on the head, a smile, a loving embrace, or a cheeky joke. I knew I could always count on him to keep me happy, keep me smiling regardless of the circumstances.

Our love story has a most tragic ending. Though it is not as well-known and celebrated as the tale of Romeo & Juliet, it needs to be told. If you will permit me, I will tell the story of me and the man I loved, Sirius Orion Black.


	2. How It All Began

**Author's Note:** Thanks to the people who read this. I wasn't a huge fan of that, but you seemed to like it. I guess I did something right then? Right, here's the next chapter. It's quite long, but I wouldn't expect that for the next ones. But do review if you read. I love feedback.

_The year was 1971. An eleven-year-old me was pushing a cart through King's Cross Station, trying to keep up with my brother, also an incoming first-year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He managed to slow my parents down so I would not be lost in the sea of muggles. Again, I looked down at my ticket for the Hogwarts Express, and up again at the platform numbers. There was no Platform 9 3/4 to be seen in the vicinity. I was bothered by this, and bit my lip anxiously. I expressed my concern to my mother and father, who both promised me that we would reach it soon enough. They had both attended Hogwarts, so I should not have been as worried as I was, but I had always been a bit of a "Nervous Nelly" as my brother so creatively put it._

_Mother and Father stopped my brother and I when we reached the pillar between Platforms Nine and Ten. My new kitten, Samson, mewed quietly in his carrier, not pleased with the circumstances in which he had to travel while my brother's owl hooted in his cage. Passerbys stared strangely at my brother's odd choice of pet, but continued on their individual sojourns._

_I stared at my parents apprehensively. "Mummy, where's th--"_

_"Joanne, darling, its right here," Mother pointed at the pillar._

_"There?" my brother seemed as equally confused._

_Our father nodded. "You two need to run straight at the wall, you'll go through it and find your platform there," he explained._

_"That's bloody mad!" my brother squinted his eyes at our mother and father as if they had grown second heads._

_"There's no need for foul language, James," Mother said sternly. A split second after, she was pulling us both into a loving embrace and crying. "I don't know what I'll do without you two around!" she wailed._

_I looked at James, a bit distressed at our mother's swift mood-swing. I silently prayed that Father wouldn't have to deal with these mood-swings while we were gone. "Meredith, please. You're choking them!" Father exclaimed. "If you keep this up they will be staying around because they'll have missed the train!"_

_She finally let go, and smiled at us, mascara-stained tears falling down her cheeks. James and I smiled back and promised we would write to her the first chance we got. Father hugged us and warned James to stay out of trouble (my twin smirked at me when he heard this, we both knew he wouldn't be able to resist)._

_With one last smile, James and I said our final farewell to our parents. I looked hard at the pillar between the two platforms, looked at my twin and gave him a knowing grin. "See you on the other side, mate." And with that, I ran as fast as I could through the bricks. I closed my eyes, expecting impact accompanied by a bloody nose, but it never came. When my eyes opened, my mouth dropped. Before my and James', who had just passed through the wall, eyes was a a shining black and red train, tooting and blowing out steam, as if poised to shoot off at any moment. I glanced at my watch. It was half past ten, James and I were a half hour early. We boarded the train, still absorbing our new surroundings. Being as early as we were, it was easy to find an unoccupied compartment to put our trunks away and I took Samson out of his cage. I thought he needed to stretch, but instead he plopped down onto my lap and began purring loudly._

_Within a few minutes, the train began to fill up with other students. People were walking by, some looked familiar from parties our parents had thrown when we were little. One face I recognised to be the fourteen-year-old Lucius Malfoy, a bitter Pureblood who believed that the world should be "cleansed" of all muggles, muggle-borns, half-bloods, and blood traitors. His father, Abraxas Malfoy, worked with my father, Joseph, in the Ministry of Magic. I did not understand how the two were friends, as my father was considered a "blood traitor" by the Pureblood community. Lucius was a miniature version of his pompous father, long platinum blond hair, icy blue eyes, his face permanently imprinted with the famous Malfoy Smirk, and his long yet elegant nose high in the air as he walked. He was already in his school robes, donning his Slytherin tie, showing the everlasting pride he had for his house. James and I shared a look of disgust as he sauntered by with his lackey, Rodolphus Lestrange, another egotistic Slytherin._

_Parents and siblings were waving on the platform as their family members returned their farewells as the train pulled away from the station. James and I were still the only two left in our compartment. We carried on light conversation, discussing what we expected from the school where we would be spending the majority of the next seven years of our lives. James was asleep after our conversation ended, and soon, I began to follow my twin's example. The constant rattle of the train was lulling me to--_

_BANG!_

_James and I were both shaken up by this sudden noise outside of the compartments and stuck our heads out of our door to see what the racket was._

_To our surprise we saw two boys, both my age, fighting in the hallway. One boy, obviously the stronger of the two, had shaggy black hair, much like James', but more tame. He had a chubby blonde boy shoved against a wall, looking like he was going to punch him. As quickly as we could, James and I ran out of the compartment to help the small mousy boy. James slammed the black-haired boy against the opposite wall, while I rushed to the aid of the blond boy._

_"Are you all right?" I asked gently._

_He looked a bit shaken up, his watery eyes looked past me. i turned to see my twin wrestling the other boy, both of them grunting and shoving each other quite hard. James' glasses had fallen off in the mêlée and one of the lenses was broken._

_"Bugger off!" shouted the boy as James pushed his face against the wall. "You don't know what you're getting into!"_

_But before any of us could react, a shout was heard from down the hall._

_"Petrificus Totalus!"_

_Both my brother and the black-haired boy froze and fell to the ground, stiff as a board, with a loud THUD! I looked down the corridor to see a small redhead (again she looked around my age) running to see if the small boy was in good condition as well._

_She looked considered at both myself and the boy. "Are you two all right! I saw the entire thing! That one," she pointed to the nameless petrified boy, "sort of attacked you after you said something to him!"_

_The terrified blonde boy spoke for the first time, and really did sound like a mouse. "Y-yes," he stammered. "I was w-walking to the bathroom when he came out. Looked v-very angry, he did. I asked him what was the m-matter and then..." The started sobbing and put his face in his hands._

_The redhead girl and I simply looked at each other in sympathy. I patted the crying boy on the shoulder. "Don't worry, mate. You can share a compartment with my brother and I. We'll make sure that bloke doesn't bother you, yeh?"_

_He looked at me as if I had saved him from a terrible and painful death, and hugged me. "Oh, th-thank you!" he wailed._

_I was taken aback by his immense gratitude and patted his back. "What's your name?" I asked him as the redhead and I helped him to his feet._

_"P-Peter. Peter Pettigrew," he stuttered._

_I smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Peter. My name's Joanne Potter. But everyone calls me Joni."_

_Then the redhead piped up. "And I'm Lily Evans. Pleasure." She shook both mine and Peter's hands. She then gestured to my brother, still petrified. "Is that your brother then?" she asked me._

_I nodded. "That's James. He pulled that bully off of Peter before he could do anything. He's my twin."_

_Lily smiled. "It was very nice of him to help Peter." She performed the countercurse and helped James to his feet. "I'm sorry, I didn't know who was who. I'm Lily Evans." She held out her hand._

_James gave her his best crooked smile and shook her hand. "James Potter at your service, miss."_

_"And I'm Peter Pettigrew!" Peter cheeped._

_"'Tis an honour, Mr. Pettigrew!" James shook Peter's hand._

_We all went into mine and James' compartment, but not before pulling the black-haired boy in with us. He remained on the floor for a while, the four of us chatted about where we were from and casual information. Lily also repaired my twin's broken glasses, which he was forever grateful for._

_"Right, what should we do with this one then?" I gestured to the still petrified attacker of Peter._

_"Well, we could just leave him like that... after what he did to you," James suggested._

_"Don't be ridiculous," Lily said smartly. "We should un-petrify him then tell a professor when we reach the school so they can give him the appropriate punishment!"_

_"I agree," I stated. "By the way, Lily, _how_ did you learn such a fab spell like that? You're a first year aren't you?"_

_Lily face turned bright fushia. "Oh, it's nothing, really. Just something I found in _The Standard Book of Spells, Year 1_."_

_"Don't be modest!" James told her. "It was bloody brilliant!" _

_Lily smiled as she performed the countercurse and the boy shook as he was released. He jumped up and glared at us. "What'd you do that for!" he shouted._

_"Well, you were attacking James and Peter!" Lily glared at him. "What did Peter ever do to you? Who do you even think you are?"_

_"Well, **I'm** Sirius Orion Black, and I can do whatever I bloody well please, girl!" he retorted._

_"Oi, don't talk to her like that, I don't care who you are, Black!" James joined the yelling. "Lily can jinx you again like that!" He snapped his fingers._

_"Like this is worth my time!" Sirius shouted. "I'm leaving!"_

_He stormed out of the compartment and slammed the door hard in our faces. Lily was seething, and so was James._

_"Forget telling a professor. We're well shot of him," James growled and sat back down._

__

_After a long conversation, Lily and I soon found that we were quite similar. We both had dressed in black for a week when the beloved Jim Morrison died, detested the colour yellow, and wanted to move to Paris when we were finished with school. James was still being thanked and thanked and thanked by Peter, who seemed to have appreciated the help he received a little too much. He kept complimenting my twin about how brave he was, and James seemed to be soaking up the attention like a sponge in water._

_We reached the school by nightfall and all of us were in our new school uniforms as we followed an almost colassal "Rubeus Hagrid" to boats that would take the first years to the school, while the older years piled into horseless carriages._

_"Now it's six students ter a boa', you lot," Hagrid told us._

_I spotted a small sandy-haired boy who had just been kicked out of a boat by a snotty looking girl with black hair. I called him over to be in the boat I was sharing with Lily, James, and Peter, which meant we only needed one more person in our boat._

_"Thanks," the sandy-haired boy smiled shyly._

_"Not a problem, mate," I grinned. "I'm Joni Potter, and that's my twin, James."_

_"How's it?" James patted him on the shoulder._

_"Hi, my name's Remus Lupin," the boy seemed at ease when we were being friendly._

_Lily shook his hand. "My name's Lily Evans. That's Peter Pettigrew." She gestured to Peter, who waved._

_"Hi, Peter, Lily," Remus nodded._

_Hagrid walked up to our with a boy just as James was going to engage a conversation. "Righ' then, Mister Black, ye'll be sharin' a boa' wif these kids then, eh?"_

_That Sirius boy from earlier looked just as "happy" to be sharing a boat as I did. "Great," he mumbled._

_Remus began to introduce himself but James stopped him. "Don't bother with that prat, Remus. He's not worth your breath."_

_Sirius glared icily at James. "You looking for a beating?" he threatened._

_"Oh, **honestly**, you lot!" I groaned. "This whole thing is probably just a misunderstanding. Not that I'm siding with you," I pointed at Sirius, "but this really has to stop. I think if we all apologised everything would just be better."_

_"I agree," Lily stated._

_"But--" James started, looking at me._

_"No but's!" I said, then turned to Sirius. "Everyone's going to apologise. Sirius you can start by saying sorry to Peter."_

_Sirius looked quite put off by me. It was as if he had never apologised to anyone before in his life. But noticing the look I was giving him (I had learnt it from Mother incase James started acting up), he grumbled an apology to Peter, who accepted and then apologised for upsetting him._

_"James, your turn," I told my brother._

_"You're kidding!" he barked. "I was only helping Peter!"_

_"If Sirius can do it, James, so can you," Lily sided with me._

_James flushed a light pink at Lily's words. I was the only one who noticed. James had been acting funny every since he met Lily..._

_"Fine," he gritted his teeth. "Sorry for trying to duff you up, Sirius."_

_"Sorry for trying to duff you up, James," Sirius mumbled back._

_"See, that wasn't so bad was it?" I gave a cheery smile to Sirius. He gave a small one in return. "Well, we haven't been properly introduced," I tried to change the topic as James continued to glare at Sirius. "I'm Joni Potter, that's my twin, James." I introduced Sirius to everyone, who muttered his hello's back. The tension on the boat wasn't as thick. But by the time we reached the castle, everyone seemed to have forgotten any ill feelings towards each other. James and Sirius acted as if they'd known each other all their lives._

_"--and then we both fell into the mud!" James laughed. "Needless to say our mum was horrified when we came into the house, our brand-new dress clothes soaked with mud..."_

_Sirius howled at the story my twin told about our younger days, as we all climbed the stairs where a strict-looking witch awaited us. She proceeded to tell us about the Sorting Ceremony, including the four houses we would be sorted in. Lily had told me she read all about the school in _Hogwarts, A History_. Of course, James and I were expected to be placed in Gryffindor like our parents had been. But when Sirius told us his entire family had been put in Slytherin since the school opened, we all seemed a bit shocked._

_"Isn't Malfoy in Slytherin?" James sounded a bit disgusted. We both hated Malfoy and his family with a passion, regardless of how many of our family's parties they attended._

_"Lucius? Yeah, my mum wanted me to spend the summer with him so he could 'prepare' me for school here." Sirius shrugged and started to blush. He obviously wasn't to happy about being friends with the Malfoys._

_"You didn't though, did you?" I asked._

_Sirius cringed. "Merlin, no! I'd rather bathe in leeches, thanks!"_

_I giggled and Sirius grinned. James seemed a bit more at ease to know his new friend wasn't the way a "typical Slytherin" would act._

_The witch who had spoken to us earlier, deputy headmistress Minerva McGonagall, escorted us into the Great Hall, where all the older years watches us come in. Some of the sixth and seventh years (particularly in Slytherin) were quite frightening. A fifth year Ravenclaw leaned to her friend and whispered, "They're getting smaller every year aren't they?"_

_McGonagall reached the front of the Great Hall, where a stool and a tattered old hat sat. Soon, the exciting hum in the room died down, and a seam on the front of the hat turned into a mouth. Then the hat began to sing. Lily told us that "The Sorting Hat" does this every year to welcome the new students, and so the students know why they are sorted into which house. When the song ended, the entire hall broke into applause. Then Professor McGonagall took the hat off the stool and a long sheet of parchment from her pocket and said, "When I call your name you will come forward and the hat will sort you into your respective houses."_

_"I hope we're all in the same house," Remus whispered to me. I nodded in agreement. Though I was eager to make more and more friends, I liked the group I had come across. It would be terrible for us all to split up into different houses._

_"Abercrombie, Logan!" McGonagall shouted._

_A pale blonde boy stumbled up to the stool. The hat went onto his head and in a few seconds it shouted "HUFFLEPUFF!"_

_The Hufflepuff table cheered loudly as Logan made his way to the table to be greeted by his fellow classmates. But the Sorting Ceremony, we all soon found out, was tiring. There were many incoming first years, and waiting to have your name called took an eternity._

_"Black, Sirius!" shook me out of my daze as my new friend made his way to the front of the dissolving crowd of first years. He didn't seem as afraid as the others had looked when they were being sorted, but his eyes, for me, gave away his scared face. He was looking over at Lucius Malfoy, who was sneering at him. The hat finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" And Sirius seemed immensely relieved when he went to sit at the Gryffindor table. Bellatrix, a girl who was just sorted into Slytherin, his cousin I supposed, glared daggers at him, but he didn't seem to notice._

_Soon, Lily's name was called. She looked terrified as the hat was placed on her head. Her lips were moving, which gave me the impression that the hat was having a conversation with her before sorting her into Gryffindor. I cheered loudly as she beamed at me and took a seat next to Sirius. He gave her a high-five as they turned to the remainder of us and gave us a thumbs up._

_Remus was sorted into Gryffindor as well, and surprisingly, so was Peter. It's not that I thought Peter wasn't brave, I just thought he was a bit to clingy to James to be Gryffindor material. Maybe he'd prove me wrong?_

_"Potter, James!"_

_James paled, but I pushed him, telling him to get a move on. He sat in the chair. When he glanced in the direction of our friends and seemed at ease. I looked where he was looking, and Lily was smiling at him. She looked pretty confident that he was going to be sorted into her house, and I could agree with her, especially after his courage on the train._

_Lily was right. James went to Gryffindor._

_"Potter, Joanne!"_

_I froze. 'Oh, Merlin, that's me!' I walked slowly to the stool, where Professor McGonagall waited with the hat. She placed it on my head, and instantly I heard a voice in my head._

_"So, that boy's got a twin then?" I recognised the voice as the hat's._

_"You talk?" I whispered._

_"Is that bad, then, Miss Potter?" the hat seemed offended._

_"Oh, no, it's not, I just didn't know..." I whimpered._

_"Didn't know, eh?" the hat was sassing me. "Well we'll just put you in... GRYFFINDOR!"_

_I squeaked in happiness and ran to the table, almost tripping on my untied shoe as a sat in-between Lily and Remus, who were both ecstatic I had been sorted into their house._

_"Looks like you go your wish then, Remus," I laughed._

_"Joni, you really should be waking up," Lily stated._

_I looked puzzled. "What?"_

_"Wake **up**, Joni!" Lily huffed. The words coming out of her mouth didn't match her lip movements, and her voice sounded exasperated while her face was full of glee. "Don't make me get Sirius to come up here! It's our first day back, you're going to be late for class!"_

I sat up as quickly as I could, taking a moment to absorb my surroundings. I sighed when I realised I was in the dormitory I shared with Lily, and our two girlfriends, Jude and Nina. The sun was shining brightly into our window and I groaned.

"Why do classes need to start _today_, Lily?" I whined as I climbed out of bed. "Why not in a week? Why not _never_?"

Lily huffed and turned back to putting on her vest. She was nearly dressed, her long red hair pulled into a bun, and her green eyes looked at me in annoyance. "Y'know, Joni, sometimes, it's not hard to believe you and James are twins."

I laughed. "Aw, fanks. You know how to make me feel so loved!" I went to the loo, where Nina was taking a shower and Jude was brushing her hair. Jude had just moved to England from the United States at the start of her fourth year. We all welcomed her with open arms, and she adjusted very quickly into the English Way at Hogwarts. She was most recently dubbed the Gossip Queen, because if something happens on the social front, Jude is always one of the first to know.

I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste as I greeted the two a good morning.

"Sleep well?" Jude asked as she curled her hair.

"Well enough," I replied. "I dreamt about the day I met you lot. Except the _daaarling_ Miss Evans," I raised my voice so Lily would hear, "woke me up before the little me had met you an' Nina."

"Shut up, Jo, you would've missed your morning classes if it hadn't been for me!" Lily retorted into the bathroom and I rolled my eyes. _'And I'm just so thankful for that,'_ I thought grimly.

"Right-o, see you two later, then!" I rinsed my mouth and left the bathroom.

"S'later," Nina called from the shower.

A few minutes later, Lily and I meandered downstairs to the common room, knowing how long Nina and Jude took to get dressed. It was a ritual to wait for my brother and "The Marauders", as they so creatively dubbed themselves in second year, before breakfast.

"What a way to start sixth year!" I sighed as I sat on the couch nearest the fire. "_Waiting_ for a gaggle of mad hatters."

Lily giggled. "You know we could just as easily leave without them. It's just a habit we've acquired."

Before I could reply, a dungbomb came soaring down the stairs that led to the boys' dormitories and landed naught five feet away from me. Lily and a few third years that were sitting in the common room screamed. I, on the other hand, stomped up a few stairs and stopped. "SIRIUS BLOODY BLACK, GET YOUR ARSE DOWN HERE _NOW!_" I roared as Lily made her way over to the steps as well.

I heard snickering, and then a head full of messy black hair and glasses popped out from behind the wall. "You rang, ladies?"

I growled. "Not you, James. Get your bloody friends down here."

Three more grinning heads popped out over James', one with sandy blonde hair, another with unkempt black hair, and the last with short blonde hair.

The one with black hair spoke. "Just a bit of fun, babe," he winked at me.

I rolled my eyes and grinned. "Sirius, you need to learn that your terms of endearment will not get you anywhere with me."

"And when has that ever stopped Padfoot?" the sandy blonde boy spoke up as the four "mad hatters" made their way down the stairs to where Lily and I were.

I hit James roughly on the head and demanded, "Control your moronic friends."

"Oi, now is that the best way to ask, sis?" he rubbed the back of his head sharply.

"C'mon, you lot, we're gonna be late for breakfast!" Peter reminded us.

"_And_ we won't get our schedules!" Lily said excitedly.

"Is that all you care about?" Sirius rolled his eyes. "Learning?" he shuddered.

We all received schedules in time, much to James, Peter, and Sirius' disappointment. All of us were continuing onto N.E.W.T level Transfiguration, History of Magic, Herbology, Potions, Charms, and Defence Against The Dark Arts. Sirius and I had almost every class together, except I, however, was still loyal to my Divination class, while he was sticking with Care of Magical Creatures. The two of us had our own way of staying on top of our studies: one of us always took notes while the other slept, or did whatever they pleased. This always worked, seeing as I was better in Potions than Sirius, and he was brilliant in Defence Against the Dark Arts. However, History of Magic was the only class _all_ of us (including Remus!) slept in. Lily was the only one who was able to pay attention during Professor Binns' droning lecture of wars and giants and goblins, so she was our heroine when it came to studying for tests in that class. Lily and I, being the overachievers that we are, decided to take a few extra classes, including Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. We wouldn't have free period like the other sixth years, but I really enjoyed Ancient Runes, so to me it wasn't a huge loss.

"Joni, you know you're absolutely mad for taking those extra courses," Sirius scolded me as we walked, arms around each other, to Transfiguration, the first class of the day.

I smiled at him. "Well, sorry if my brain's got a bit more space than yours, " I teased. "Besides, if I'm mad, how come you and the Mad Hatters haven't inducted me into your little gang?"

"You're hilarious," he rolled his eyes.

I had taken to calling the Marauders the Mad Hatters, mostly because, well, they _are_ quite mad. They've even got odd "nicknames." Of course, being James, er, _Prongs'_ sister I know how they all acquired their names, but all the same, there's really no need to call each other them unless they're plotting. But I really did love those blokes.

James is my twin, so that's given. He's also quite hilarious when he's on the Quidditch field as Chaser. He's a fantastic player, but it's funny to see him get worked up over matches. He's Captain of the team now, so of course, things can only get worse. And the fact that he's an oggling whatsit over Lily, my most wonderful pally, makes life a bit more complicated. Lily used to find my twin past unbearable from first to fifth year, but after an incident involving Severus Snape, and a _Levicorpus_, James straightened himself up, and his head became a bit less swelled. Lily's tolerating him now, maybe even enjoys his company, but she won't admit it even to _me_. If James keeps up his good behaviour, there's a chance that he could be dating Lily by the end of term.

Then there's Remus, darling darling Remus. He's the sweetest person I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Being a prefect, you'd expect him to be busting the Marauders for all their magnificent pranks, but Remus was always "conveniently" somewhere else when James and Sirius caused mischief. Remus is a sensitive one, which makes him easier to talk to when the other Mad Hatters are pratting up the hallways. The fact that he's a werewolf also seems to play a crucial part in how well he acts around people. The lot of us are always extra specially nice to him around the full moon, which seems to help him feel more loved. After being bitten, his parents were at a huge loss of what to do with him, so for him it was lovely to have people that wanted to help him through that hard time every month. Though he didn't play Quidditch, his "condition", keeps him looking quite fit. And don't think I'm the only one to notice. Jude Nicolson, my roommate and second bestest girly pal, recently discovered this as well, and can't keep her eyes off him. What's better is that Remus seems to fancy her as well. It's quite cute seeing their shy flirting and such, but if they don't make a move and get in that taxi to Datesville, I might just have to drive them there myself.

Peter Pettigrew was the first Marauder I met, excluding James. He really looks up to my brother, and it's nice to see that he really likes James, but sometimes it gets a bit obsessive, where James is just showing off, knowing Peter's going to be watching. Peter's very sweet, nonetheless. He's quite shy around the females of our school, I still don't think he's ever had a proper girlfriend, which is a bit depressing when you see who his company is. But they may have something to do with his hopelessness with girls. See, James, Sirius, and Remus are, as a large population of females (and males) in the school says, are Hogwarts Finest Male Specimens. All three of them are quite fit, popular, they have something they're known for in school- James is a Quidditch Junkie, Remus is prefect and top choice for Head Boy next year, and Sirius is the Lady Killer of Hogwarts. So it's hard to compete when you're friends with those three. I still think Peter has his eyes on a Hufflepuff, Maggie Sharpe, but I don't think he'll make his move soon enough.

Let's see... who am I forgetting? Oh dear, right then...

Sirius Black is, well... quite the character to say the least. He's a Chaser with James, and though he's not the most brilliant player on the team, he's most popular for his reputation with girls. See, he's quite the ladies' man here at Hogwarts. I mean, it's dead obvious that he's a marvellous looking bloke, but I never said his reputation was a good one. Actually, it goes both ways. It depends on who you're talking to. Some say he's God's gift to all women (which he won't argue with), and others aren't as courteous. They say he's a conceited git who thinks more with "little Sirius" than his brain. I can't say I agree with either parties, but I will say that he's quite cool when he's not attempting to impress, or torture people (i.e., Severus Snape). And Sirius is _beyond_ fit. He's a bloody Sex God if you ask me. His smile makes him look quite dog-ish, and his eyes are the most brilliant blue I've ever seen, and... oo-er. Sirius Black is just breathtaking. Of course, he would be to me, seeing as I've fancied him since third year when he made the Quidditch team with James and scored the first goal of the season for Gryffindor against Slytherin (Lucius Malfoy wasn't too pleased, being Keeper and everything). But I just think he's a fabulous person. He's really fun, tells great jokes, and despite what you may think of him, he's rather smart. But above all, I can just talk to him without those weird silences people have with everyone, y'know? Even Lily and I have those, and she's my best friend. But Sirius and I seem to connect on a really deep level. He trusts me with his really important secrets, like the fact that he wants to be an Auror when he grows up, and help take down Voldemort and his Death Eaters. His family, being the "holier-than-thou", Slytherin-sorted family they are, already refuses to admit the fact that Sirius exists. So hearing that he wants to take down all of their friends and family, they would jump at the chance to disown him.

I mean, this summer, he ran away to me and James' house, right after his sixteenth birthday. His mother and him got into a row, and he couldn't have taken it anymore. So, he just left. He was lucky to have had the motorcycle we (James, Lily, Remus, Peter, Jude, Nina, and I) all chipped in to buy for his birthday, or else he'd have had to wait to owl us so we could find a way to get him out. He'd been a bloody wreck when he finally got to our house; freezing after riding in the cold night air, dark circles under his eyes from his lack of sleep that night, not to mention his eyes were still red, as if he had cried all the way to my house. Of course Mum and Dad took him in and let him stay for the rest of the summer. James had Apparated over to Lily's where I was staying and cut my visit short, but Sirius was my best friend and I had to see him. It was a really hard couple of days for Sirius, but having me, James, Remus, and Lily (who came rushing over after I owled) there really helped him get back to his old self. Now, our friendship's stronger than it ever was. I don't think I could see my life without Sirius Black, and I don't think he could see his without me.

"Babe, I feeling we're not going to be learning at all today," he groaned. Professor McGonagall continued to stress the importance of our N.E.W.T.s and kept referring back to the conferences we had with her last term regarding our future career and the courses we would take.

I yawned and nodded. "Think we can both afford to take a nap this class?" I whispered back.

Lily, who was sitting in front of us with Nina, turned around when she heard me say "nap." She didn't look pleased. "No, you could _not_ afford to take a nap in this class or any other!" she whispered viciously. "All of this is very important information and it's necessary to stay awake during ALL of it!" She huffed and then turned back to McGonagall.

Sirius and I rolled our eyes at each other, then put our heads down on our desks. It was going to be a very long year.


	3. Snooging?

**Author's Note:** Ello! I had this chapter sort of written up when I posted the first one, but I couldn't finish it to save my life. But thanks to the cap'n, (CAP'N CHEWY!) I got back on the author wagon. Thank the lord. I'm über excited to get the next chapter up. Also, I've started a NorringtonOC. If you feel like it, check it out. I've worked pretty hard on it.

Disclaimer: Ha! I wish!

By mid-October, everybody was up to their armpits in work. James was preoccupied as every with getting his Quidditch team to play the way he wanted. Lily was doing all these extra papers for teachers to make sure she wasn't failing her classes (as if she would). Peter was having trouble in Herbology, so he had to meet with a tutor (who just so happened to be Maggie Sharpe) every Wednesday night. Rosie was busy with her new boyfriend, a Parisian Sex God in Ravenclaw, and Jude was off being the Gossip Queen of Hogwarts, eavesdropping on interesting conversation, catching couples snogging in the hallways, etc. Not to mention the mountain of homework that was looming over us all. I had actually dropped Arithmancy earlier that month when I realised how impossible it would be to do the work in that class along with all my others. At least I had a free period now. I spent most of it relaxing with Remus and Sirius, who were the only ones that seemed as unoccupied with other affairs as me.

It was eight o' clock on a Sunday morning. Not many people were up before nine, and I had found Remus in the common room, so the two of us decided to grab breakfast. The day of our first Hogsmede trip, Saturday, October 28, had just been posted on the bulletin board. The trip just so happened to fall on Jude's 17th birthday, and Remus had the wonderful idea that we should throw her a surprise party that day. I also pointed out, this was a more-than-perfect opportunity for Remus to confess his love for her, but he was uneasy.

"What if she doesn't like me?" he worried.

I put my coffee down and groaned. "Remus, I'm convinced she likes you. She even told me last year that she wished you had asked her to the last Hogsmede trip instead of Robbie Fagan. And I shouldn't be telling you this," I leaned in closer to Remus and lowered my voice. "She's always talking about how gorgeous you are, how nice you are, and she even told us how head-over-heels she is for you! Besides, it's her birthday! This is your chance to express your unwavering, unfaltering, undying, ceaseless, passionate, steamy, hot, mad, everlasting, immortal, eternal, unsurpassable--"

"Right, right!" he sighed. "I get it. I just don't know how I'm going to get her alone to talk..."

"Don't worry your lovely little head about it," I ruffled his already messy hair. "We'll figure out something."

Remus perked up. "Thanks, Jo. You're amazing."

I buffed my nails and did my best James Potter Conceited Smile. "Yeah, I know."

"Oi, Moony! Don't get too fresh with my girl there, mate!" called a voice that so _obviously_ belonged to Sirius Black. He sat next to me and kissed my nose. "How's my girl doing today?" he beamed.

I loved, loved, _LOVED_ when Sirius did that. Of course we weren't dating, but our playful flirting, loving embraces, and the occasional kiss made it a bit easier for me to cope with my enormous crush. It was so nice to receive and return affection with him. I did cuddle Remus on the occasion and loved the company of all the Mad Hatters, I enjoyed the company of Sirius Black the most.

"I'm absolutely peachy, Siri-baby," I teased. "Darling Remsie and I were just having a nice little chat."

Both Remus and Sirius cringed at my sickening petnames but Sirius nuzzled my cheek. "Well, did you see that there's a Masquerade instead of the feast this year?" I shook my head. "D'you know what this means?" Again, I shook my head. He rolled his eyes. "You're so very dim sometimes, but that's why I'm taking you to the Masquerade. It even says we should have a date and dress to match. Which means we'll have to find some time this Saturday to devote to shopping for our costumes, dig?"

I was shocked. Sirius had never ever never never never never taken me to Hogsmede before. He usually went with the Marauders or, the occasional Snogging Bimbo. And I did go with him and the Marauders sometimes, but never had it been just the two of us! I smiled at him and kissed his nose.

"Of course, sugarlumpy-kins," I cooed. "I would wuuv to go wif yewww. Buuuttt..."

"But, love?" he frowned. "There are no but's with Sirius Black!" he declared proudly.

I laughed. "I told Remus we would throw Jude a party at Hogsmede. Maybe at that adorable coffee/tea shop you went to with Katie Hawkins?"

"But Joniii," he whined, "I wanna spend the trip with yewww, my oogie boogie snuggle bearrr."

Remus groaned. "You two are sick."

Sirius pouted. "Heyy..."

"Quiet, muffin," I pinched his lips together, then turned back to Remus. "Darling, you are going to plan the Birthday Extravaganza for your lady and she will luuuuuuuurve it, and when I tell her you did the planning she will become so in luuuuuurve that she will just tackle you right there in the tea shop and snoog you 'til you dieeee!"

"Isn't she supposed to _snog_ him, Jo?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. Phwoarr, he was sexy when he did that.

"No. Jude called it snooging when she first came here," I explained. "Now, it's known as 'better-than-snogging' to us."

Sirius shook his head and smiled. "You're mad."

"D'you think you can help me plan the party?" Remus asked me hopefully. "You did such a brilliant job with that Christmas party last year, and I want Jude's birthday to be really special."

I smiled at his devotion and patted his head. "Of course I'll help, Remsie." I got up from the table. "Well, I'm going to start my Potions homework, I'll come round your room around three to help plan."

"Thanks," he said as I began to walk away. "Oh, and Joni?"

I turned around. "Yes, Remsie?

Remus cringed. "Please don't call me Remsie ever again."

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By Saturday, everything was planned out perfectly. We managed to rent out Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop for a few hours to have the yelling of "SURPRISE!", the prezzies, hugs, lots of chatting, and maybe Remus snooging her (doubtful, he'd received a nasty bit from the Hopeless Hornet that week). Lily and Nina were supposed to keep Jude busy while the rest of us went to Madam Puddifoot's to prepare, even though there was very little to organise. Nina invited her boyfriend, who helped us invite a huge gaggle of people who, of course, loved Jude and wanted to wish her a happy birthday.

Peter went to Honeydukes quickly to buy Jude some Chocolate Frogs and Fizzing Whizzbees for her present, and I was wrapping the gift Lily and I chipped in to buy. Sirius and James were utterly disgusted with our choice of venue for this party, but went along with regardless. It was a bit frilly and lacy, but Jude loves those sort of things. I had made a huge banner with a picture of the birthday girl smiling, and blowing kisses. Underneath I wrote "OH, DEAR, YOU'RE LEGAL!" I helped Remus pick out an outfit that morning, remembering what Jude always said Remus looked handsome in. I dressed him in a white and red rugby shirt ("The colours of luuuuurve, Remus!" I told him.) with some nice jeans, and I admitted to him, I was quite jealous that he fancied Jude and not me when he looked like that. Sirius didn't like when I said that.

"Jo, it's nearly time, go see if they're outside now," James said, gesturing to his watch.

Lily, Nina, and Jude were supposed to be "casually walking by" at precisely noon, and I was to go outside, bump into them and lure them into the tea shop, where Jude would receive her fabulous, almost-completely-planned-by-Remus party. I smiled, told the crowd of people I was bringing in Jude in a few minutes, so they should keep quiet. I gave the Mad Hatters a thumbs up, then walked out into the chilly autumn air of Hogsmede.

Right on schedule, I saw Jude walking arm-in-arm with Lily and Nina. I grinned and walked over to the girls. Lils and Nina, being the fabulous actresses they are, pretending to be shocked to see me.

"Hiii, dearies, how are you?" I smiled at them and gave Jude a huge hug. "Happy Birthday, babe!"

"Fanks, love," Jude smiled at me. "Watcha doin' out here?"

"Well, I was just on my way to find you, actually!" I lied superbly. "I was going to invite you all for tea, my treat! It's your birthday after all."

Jude gleamed. "Aww, that's so sweet of you! You didn't have to!"

"I wanted to, Jude. C'mon, we'll find a nice table inside and do girly chat."

Nina added with a smile, "To start off with girly chat, how're you and Remus doing?" We began to walk to the tea shop. All of us were rooting for our two friends to get together, but as I've stated before, both of them were slow getting into that Datesville taxi.

"Well, he's been acting a bit funny, really," Jude frowned a bit. "I can't figure out why. It's like he's hiding something,"

I smiled wisely. "He's probably trying to hide his oh-so-obvious luuuurve for you! You just can't tell because you're too busy luuuurving him, my dim pally. Just tell him how you feeeeel!"

"Feeeeliiiings," Nina sang as we reached the door. Lily opened it as we all came inside.

People had on mad party hats and were grinning as we walked in. Jude almost cried when we all did the "SURPRISE, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WE LOVE YOU!" Peter took a v. v. good picture of her when she walked in the door. It was all so so magnificent. We were all surrounding her and she was close to tears when we put on her birthday hat James and Sirius made for her. It flashed "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDE!" and multi-coloured sparks were spewing out of the top.

"You're all so wonderful!" Jude cried. "I can't believe you lot, this is amazing! I never expected this!"

"Don't thank us!" Nina smiled.

Sirius pushed Remus forward. "Yeah, it was all _Moony's_ idea. The venue, the plan, and everything!"

"It was really brilliant of him, wasn't it?" I elbowed her lightly in the arm and winked.

I had never seen Jude smile so big and bright in all my years of knowing her. And it was at Remus, who was turning a light pink in embarrassment. But he seemed to be smiling too. "You like it then?" he asked hopefully.

"OH, REMUS, THIS IS AMAZING, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!" she screamed as she pulled him into an enormous hug. When she let him go, she gave him a hearty kiss on the lips. We all looked a bit shocked, but nothing prepared us for what happened when they pulled away...

Remus pulled her in for a SNOOG! Not a snog, but a snoog! And I whooped and hollered and yelled, and so did everyone else (because we all knew they were mad for each other). And when the two snoogers pulled away again, Remus shocked us all again.

"I love you," he told Jude.

And then I screamed and whooped and hollered and yelled when Jude kissed him again and said "I love you too."

It turned out to be a very magical and very very special day.

When the party was over, Remus and Jude stayed behind at the teashop for quite some time when it was opened again to the public.

"No doubt they wanted more alone time for a snoog fest," I laughed as Sirius and I went into a costume shop. I was so so soooo happy. Two of my most favourite friends were finally together, and _I_ was going on a somewhat date-ish thing with Sirius Black.

"Can you believe Remus did that?" Sirius said, still in shock. "It was so out of character!"

"But it was really sweet though, wasn't it?" I swooned. "You just wait, they're going to get married. Then they'll be free to have lots of sex and babies."

"Joni, you've got it all wrong. _We'll_ be the ones having lots of sex and babies." Sirius kissed the top of my head and held up a skimpy red devil costume to me. "You'll look absolutely stunning in this."

I squinted at the costume. I would be surprised if my basoomas fit into that costume without popping out. Not that I was gifted with enormous ones, mind you. But all the same, that top would show far too much cleavage for my taste.

"Ha ha, Mister Tits-Pervert," I pushed the whorish outfit away from me. "Only in your dreams would I be wearing something like that."

Sirius grinned wickedly. "Love, if I had the choice, you wouldn't be wearing anything in my dreams."

My ears got hot. He always had to make me blush didn't he? Rolling my eyes, I picked up a green fairy costume. "I could be the Green Fairy! Like the one on the Absinthe bottles!"

"Won't you look like an alcoholic then?" he raised an eyebrow at me. Did I mention how sexy he looked when he did that? "Besides, isn't Absinthe illegal in England."

(**A/N:** Absinthe is this REALLY STRONG alcohol. It's banned in lots of countries, including the U.S. Green Fairy is a brand of it. It was in Moulin Rouge in the very beginning. Anyone remember that?)

"It's still a good idea..." I pouted.

We walked deeper into the store. There was quite an assortment of costumes. Ghouls, goblins, wolves, mummies, teddy-bears, sailors, cats, angels, and devils were just a few. They even had some leather skimpy outfits that looked a bit too Dominatrix for me. Sirius fell in love with a Elizabethan era outfit, puffy pants and all. I told him he'd look fruity wearing tights, but he said he was so secure in his heterosexuality it didn't really matter. I was still having trouble finding myself a costume, refusing to dress like a stuffy royal in the days of Lizzie the First.

"How about _bumblebee_?" Sirius groaned. We were getting desperate. Every idea he had, I shot it down. It's not that they weren't good ideas, it's just that I really wasn't mad about anything I was seeing. If we couldn't find anything soon, I was just going to wear a stuffy dress to match Sir Sirius of the Flaming Kingdom.

I put my head in my hands and kept walking. "I really hope you didn't just suggest a bumblebee, Sirius. Do you _want_ me to look like a loon?"

He pulled me into his arms back to the costume. "Well at this point we're both bloody fed up with finding a costume. This is taking so long, love!" he said exasperatedly. "You're so fucking picky."

I turned in his embrace so I was facing him and put my head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. But I know I'll find what I'm looking for soon, I promise."

"Please do," he sighed and I returned to my browsing.

"Nurse, no. Mime, you've got to be kidding me..." I continued to reject everything I saw.

Sirius groaned again. "Oh, come off it! You've got to find what you want soo-- where are you going?" he questioned as I shot off to the very back of the store, my eyes widened in excitement.

"THIS IS IT!" I squealed as I held up the costume of my dreams. "I'll be a PIRATE!"

"Pirate, love?" Sirius looked uneasily at the eye-patch I began putting on my head.

"Yes, it's perfect!" I smiled. "You know I'd give anything to be a swashbuckler! Will you be one with me pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease please please please?" I begged.

He rolled his eyes at me. "Fine. I can't have you looking loopy and mad all on your own."

"YES YES YES!" I punched my fist into the air. "Do you know how perfect you are right now?" I hugged him tightly.

Sirius chuckled. "I think I've got a vague idea."

I picked up another pirate costume and a peg-leg for Sirius. "Excellent! We'll just pay for these and be on our merry old way then, eh?"

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Within a few days, nearly the entire school knew about Remus and Jude becoming a couple. Some people found them to be an odd match, but mostly everyone was happy for the two lovebirds. Of course, there were jealous girls who pined for Remus, and blokes who wanted to beat Remus into a bloody pulp and take Jude for themselves, the new couple was too mad about each other to even consider glancing at anyone else. Even the faculty seemed to know about the lovebugs, because every time Professor Dumbledore saw the two, he would give them a wink or a small smile before returning to what he was doing. They had already become the faculty's favourite couple though they were barely two weeks into their courtship. Even McGonagall seemed to approve of the pair.

All of us were sitting in the common room, two nights before the Masquerade Ball, eagerly awaiting the weekend and the ball. This was a rare occurrence for a large affair of these sorts to occur. There had been a huge rumour going around that some popular muggle band was going to perform, but I highly doubted it, especially after Lily told me muggles were not allowed in the school for obvious reasons. Still, it was fun to guess who we thought would be coming. I suggested The Rolling Stones but most were hoping for Queen or ABBA. James thought maybe The Doors, because he knew I worshipped them, but it only made me get a bit teary because the heart and soul of them, darling darling Jim Morrison, had passed on sometime ago. Still, everyone was in quite a dither about the new way of celebrating Halloween. Jude, however, was still gushing about her party.

"Remsie, I still can't believe you pulled together that party!" Jude sighed as she kissed him on the cheek.

"Oi, Remus!" I pouted. "How come _she_ gets to call you Remsie and I don't? That's unfair!"

"I'm his girlfriend, you madwoman. I'm can give him sickening petnames." Jude laughed as I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Don't be so bitter, Joni," James laughed. "You've got Siri-baaaabyyy!" he teased.

"Oh, you're just SO funny," I rolled my eyes.

Sirius, James and I shared a couch, while the two new lovebirds cuddled in a love seat. Peter had a chair to himself and Nina had somehow managed to sneak her French boyfriend, Jean-Claude, into the Gryffindor tower, despite the fact that was in Ravenclaw. They were sitting on the floor next to the couch, Jean-Claude laying on the floor with his head on Nina's lap. Lily had attempted sitting on the couch, but with James constantly trying to snuggle up to her, she managed to find a chair for herself.

Sirius had his arm wrapped around me. He was playing with my fringe, mussing it up, then smoothing it down again, and curling it with his fingers. It was incredibly sweet the way he would smile when he pushed it back to look at my forehead, which was paler than the rest of my face because my fringe blocked the sun. I snuggled up to Sirius, and he smirked when I yawned lightly.

"Well, Joni helped me with the invitations and planning," Remus admitted. "I've never been good at planning parties and she helped me rent out Madam Puddifoot's."

"Joni, you're amazing! Thanks for helping him," Jude smiled at me.

I was still pretending to be angry at her for calling me mad and stuck my tongue out at her, which she returned this time. I did a huffy pout and blew at my fringe, lifting it out of my eyes. Sirius laughed at my behaviour. "You're too cute when you do that," his laugh reminded me of a dog's friendly bark.

"I'm cute all the time, you dolt," I yawned again. "Merlin, I'm sleepy. How many days until Christmas?"

"Is that all you think about?" James groaned.

"Actually, yes." I grinned.

Christmas was by far, my favourite time of year. I always had my list ready by Halloween, and was dressing in red and green by the middle of November. Everyone thought I was a nutter for being such a Christmas freak, but by December, everyone else was in high spirits with me. Every year, Christmas would get better and better and better. I loved it. Last year, I went skiing in the French Alps with Lily, her mum and dad, and her unfortunate sister, Petunia. Other than that, I had spent every Christmas at Hogwarts with James and the Marauders. Peter's parents were having him home for the holidays so he could meet his baby cousin, Winston, but besides him, I had a feeling everyone else would be remaining at school this Christmas.

"Let's wait for Halloween to pass before we get into the Yuletide cheer," Lily said.

"What about Thanksgiving?" Jude implored.

"i hope you're joking," Nina warned. "Why celebrate some half naked blokes and women with feathers and paint all over them helped the witch-burners from dying?"

Our American friend pouted while the rest of us laughed. It was tough to stay true to your Star-Spangled roots with the company Jude chose. We all thoroughly enjoyed her mad American customs, and loved to hear the hilarious things their silly little government does, but of course, we English hold quite a grudge against the Americans for beating our arses. Twice, in fact.

"Oh, you know we're kidding, love," I told Jude. "We all love you and your slightly dim but charming Americano nutters. But we will celebrate your Thanks-for-saving-us-so-we-can-kill-you-later-day, I promise. It will be the Thanksgiving of the _century_!"

"Well, I don't know about you lot," James began, "but I'm starting to get hungry."

"We ate dinner two hours ago!" Jude exclaimed. "You can't possibly be hungry now."

"You obviously don't know James," Remus kissed his girlfriend on her forehead.

"I'll come with," Peter said, getting out of his chair quickly.

The two Marauders left, and soon Nina told us she wanted to walk Jean-Claude back to his room. Of course, that meant she would not be back for hours. Nina was Queen of Broom closet Snogging. Then Lily and Jude began to leave, remembering they had not finished their Potions essays and went to the dormitory to finish. Jude did not leave, however, without a hearty goodnight kiss from Remus, which made me smile. Only he, Sirius, and myself remained. The three of us launched into a long, elaborate conversation regarding the Masquerade Ball. Remus and Jude decided to dress like a couple á la 1920s. Remus was planning on looking like a mobster like Al Capone and Jude was wearing a micro-mini dress with the silly little dangling whatsits and a matching skullcap.

"Jude would," I laughed. "She does anything and everything to show off her legs. Then again so would I."

"What're you saying?" Remus raised an eyebrow. He looked attractive when he did it, but not like Sirius.

"I'm saying your girlfriend's got fucking amazing legs that I'd kill to have!" I admitted. "And I am secure enough in my heterosexuality to say so."

"Are you daft? You've got great le--" Sirius began to argue, but then stopped himself and I will swear on my life' savings that he started to turn pink.

Being the incredibly dense girl I was, I took no notice to Sirius' unfinished compliment. "D'you have any idea Peter is going with?" I asked Remus. "I'd asked him earlier but he sort of mumbled and then walked away..."

Remus shrugged. "Wormtail hasn't been himself lately. I don't even know if he plans on going."

"He's been acting strange lately, hasn't he?" Sirius asked us.

To tell the truth, Peter _had_ been acting strange. Though he was there for Jude's party, and our chat in the common room, I had noticed less and less of him recently. He seemed like he desperately wanted to tell us something, but couldn't find it in himself to do so. Even Maggie, his tutor and supposed crush, had asked us why he wasn't showing up to his lessons. The other Marauders would see him sneak out of their dorm late at night and then not return until morning, claiming he had gone to the common room because he left something there. His behaviour was dodgy, and for some reason, none of us found the courage to sit him down and ask what was wrong.

"One of you should ask what's up," I sighed. "I would do it, but it sounds like Peter really isn't himself and you lot know him best."

"We're planning on cornering him if he tries to leave tonight," Remus promised me. "I'm going off to bed, 'night."

"G'night," I smiled as he retreated upstairs to the boys' dormitories and leaned in more toward Sirius. He was quite comfortable to rest with. And I hate being a sickening romantic, but our bodies seemed to fit nicely together. Sirius went back to lightly stroking the top of my head, and I moved so my head was resting in his lap.

"This is nice," I breathed quietly.

Sirius cocked an eyebrow. Oh, _Buddha_, he looked good when he did that. "What's nice, love?"

"Just this," I smiled up at him sweetly. "I luuurve relaxing down here."

"Only with me, though," Sirius laughed.

"Of course!" I patted his cheek.

For a while longer, the two of us sat in silence, enjoying the other's company and the crackling of the fire. The common room was empty save the two of us, which was odd considering the time (barely nine o' clock), which was nice because we did not have to deal with the constant, high-pitched giggling of the younger girls in our house. Of all the insatiable young girls at school, the Gryffindors were by far the worst. They considered a Marauder looking in their general direction a sign that they were completely infatuated with them. This occurred often with Sirius, who seemed to be most annoyed with the inane chatter and squealing laughter. As I had said before, he was quite the ladies' man. However, a quick glare from me or a few rude words from James got the insane preteens to shut up. James and I were the most hated amongst the young ones. I was for being so close to Sirius, and the girls despised James for a) only having eyes for Lily, and b) for sticking up for me whenever they made rude comments to or about me. But I was forever thankful for Sirius, who rescued me from a huge group of them last term. They had actually cornered me, and it was quite intimidating with there being so many of them, but darling Mr. Black stepped in before they could "Wingardium Leviosa" me (I highly doubt they knew anything nearly as bad as the hexes I knew).

Sirius and I locked eyes for a very intense moment and I was about to open my mouth when a voice came from behind us. "Joni?"

Sirius and I both turned at the interruption. A first year boy with ginger hair and adorable brown eyes to boot. I smiled at the boy, who's name I knew was Bill Weasley. "Hi, Bill. What's up?"

He seemed very happy that I knew his name and his face started to turn the same colour of his hair. "Erm, Robert Green wanted me to give this to you."

Robert Green was a seventh year Ravenclaw who had tutored me a few years back in Care of Magical Creatures. I was pleased not to be taking the class anymore, because I found that learning about unicorns and hippogriffs just did not seem to interest me. Robert and I were on friendly terms, but I spent most of my time with the Marauders and the girls. I don't think Sirius approved of him, he thought Robert was only trying to get in my pants. I enjoyed Robert's company, he was good for a chat about useless things. And I would be lying if I said he wasn't much to look at.

"From that dirty bugger?" Sirius looked displeasingly at the note in my hand.

I hit him on the arm. "He's _not_ dirty, nor a bugger. Stop being so childish," I chastised as I opened the parchment.

"Really, Jo, why do you find this bloke so charming?" Sirius persisted. "He's not looking for anything but--"

"Sirius, _please_. Don't you think that I'm smart enough to know how to get myself out of a bad situation? Robert and I are no more of friends than you and I are." I gave Sirius a sly grin. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous, Mr. Black."

Sirius' eyes narrowed and he shook a finger at my playfully. "You listen, here, Sirius Black does _not_ get jealous."

I sighed and giggled. "Fine, have it your way," I got up from the couch and gave Mr. Jealous a small kiss on the forehead. "I'm off to bed, you should be too. We've got classes tomorrow."

"Sweet dreams, love," Sirius followed me up the stairs, arm around my shoulder, before we had to part ways.

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"So, what did the note say?" Jude asked eagerly when I told her Robert sent me a letter.

I shrugged. "Just checking up on me to see how I've been," I gave her the note to read. "Usual things. We've barely talked all year."

Jude and Lily, who were both on my bed with me, scanned the note with knowing grins on their faces. I raised an eyebrow at the two. They were clearly reading the letter differently than I was.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jude giggled.

I shook my head.

"Robert _likes_ you, Joni! Lookit what he's written!" Lily joined in.

I snatched the letter back and reread it aloud. _"Sex Kitten, you must be exhausted from running through my mind all day. I can see your nose scrunching up at that. You know I enjoy tragic pickup lines. But how is the Lioness? Does she miss her dear Robbie? Of course she does. I did like Marvin Gaye and heard through the grapevine you and Sirius Black are going to the Masquerade together. I'm sure you will be wearing the pants in this relationship. Give my best to the wife! See you at the ball, eh? Robert." _I looked at the two insane girls before me that I called friends. "So? It's Robbie. He's daft."

"Daft about _you_," Lily told me.

"If that isn't the biggest 'I like you', I don't know what is," Nina said as she just entered the room.

Jude took my hand in hers. "I know why it's so hard to except, dearest."

I raised an eyebrow again. "And why is it that I can't seem to come to face that Robert loves me?"

"You don't want to hurt Sirius' feelings, of course!"

"What!" I nearly shrieked. "How did Sirius get into this conversation?"

Jude rolled her eyes. "He likes you, Joni!"

"So you're telling me that not only does _Robert Green_ have a thing for me, but Sirius Black does too?" I nearly yelled. I don't know whether I was excited to hear Jude's "professional opinion" or not. I'd always been unsure about Sirius' feelings. We did the harmless flirting thing, only because we've been good friends for so long. There was nothing awkward about our relationship, but I would rather have him as a boyfriend than a v. v. flirtatious friend.

All three of the girls nodded. "Sirius has always liked you, Jo," Lily said.

"You're like the way I was with Remus," Jude agreed. "What was it you said the day of the party? 'You can't see how much he's in luuuurve with you because you're too busy luuuuurving him!'"

I shook my head. "_No_, I don't like him. Not like that."

"You've never been good at fibbing," Nina laughed.

I pushed them all off my bed and shut my curtains. "Well, I've known Sirius long enough to know if he had something to say, especially if he 'luuuurved' me, he would have told me," I said, trying to convince myself more than the girls. "So good night to you all, I'm going to sleep."

"Ohh, I think he loves you, so what are you so afraid ooof?" Lily and Nina sang.

"Sod off!" I shouted as I pulled my pillow over my head.

Sleep did not come easily that night for me.


	4. Boogie Vonderland!

**Author's Note:** Yes! Another chapter! I was literally chained to my computer when I wrote this. I'm not totally pleased with this chapter, but I've gotta get the story moving along. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you guys mean the world to me!

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, a mysterious woman named Jessica would end up having sex with most of the male characters.

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The next day in History of Magic, our last class of the day, I decided to write Robbie a reply. I took out a sheet of paper, which gave off the illusion of me beginning to take notes. Lily smiled proudly at me. But everyone else could tell I had no intention of writing what Binns was saying. I looked at the note Robbie had sent me. _"Sex Kitten, you must be exhausted..."_

I tapped my quill against the parchment and thought of what to write. I hated writing openings to letters. They were always so awkward and hard to think of. I tried out a beginning.

_Dearest Darlingest Lover, Robbie._

No, it sounded too schmaltzy. I scratched it out and tried again.

_Ello, poppet!_

Too pathetic.

_Mr. Big Knob,_

Good Lord, no.

After a few more failed tries, I couldn't figure out why I was having so much trouble with this. I was putting far too much time into this. Sirius, who was sitting behind me, kept trying to see what I was writing, which earned him a few light but firm slaps on the cheek, and the pull of the nose. I contemplated asking one of the girls what to write, but that would only solidify their assumptions of what I thought of Robbie. I laid my head against my desk in desperation, thinking the blow to the forehead would activate some sort of brain function.

Surprisingly enough, it did.

_Madame, It brings me great disdain to tell you to please refrain from hitting on me. I do not condone to sexual harassment. Do not force me to report you to the headmaster, as I know he will not approve of your senile behaviour. And I know my wife, Sirius Black, will not find this amusing at all either. He is a pirate and will keelhaul you, or feed you to sharks. Either way, you're dead. Am I to assume you are dateless and lonely for the ball? How tragic. Maybe you should try being charming instead of harassing your victims. I would hate for anyone to go through what you do to me. Good day! Hatefully yours, The Sex Kitten_.

I read over the note and smiled. We used too much dry sarcasm in our correspondence, but Robbie made it fun to do. I folded the note, and handed it to his sister in my year, Rebecca, who understood it was for her brother. Sirius raised an eyebrow at me and I matched his look. I'm sure I've said this before, but ooer, he made me feel all sort of faint like I'd pass out when he did that. He was quite sexy when he did it. Oh gosh, I've said that before, haven't I? Well, he really is.

After class, Rebecca asked me what the note was regarding.

I shrugged. "Nothing too important," I told her. "Just replying to a note he sent me last night. Make sure he gets it today, yeh?"

Rebecca nodded and smiled. "No problem."

"Thanks, mate. See you!" I said as I went to catch up with the gang.

"The ball is tomorrow!" Jude squealed. "Aren't you excited, love?" she leaned her head on Remus' shoulder as the held hands.

"Should be fun," he smiled at his girlfriend. "I'm not thrilled about the dancing bit."

"None of us are that good anyway," James said.

"Well, maybe the _Marauders_ aren't." I winked at Lily, who winked right back.

"Eh?" Sirius looked at me funny. (I wish he'd raised an eyebrow then, he looked soooo attractive when he did it.)

Lily grinned. "Last summer, the girls came round for a few weeks," she explained. "All we did was dance to disco records and go round London."

"Oh, dear!" Nina laughed. "Remember the bison horns we bought at the flea market?"

"They were _so_ ace, you guys," I reminisced. "It was Bison Disco Inferno all the time! It's a shame your mum threw them away, Lily."

Lily sighed. "I know. Even if it _was_ by accident it was still a tragic day."

"I'm sure _Tuna_ wasn't too upset with the loss," I giggled.

Petunia, or Tuna as I called her, was Lily's tragic older sister. She was a muggle, and absolutely hated Lily for being a witch. She enjoyed all things normal, orderly, and not magical. When we stayed at Lily's all Tuna did was hide in her room or visit her lardy boyfriend, Vernon, who has no neck. Tuna was incredibly lanky, and had "racehorse elbows". On top of that, she looked like a horse. Lily tried to make peace with her sister many times, but Tuna just found it easier to pretend Lily didn't exist.

"Well, you'd always run into her room and disco, no wonder she was glad when they were gone," Lily reminded me.

Jude was crying so hard from laughing now. "But it _was_ pretty funny when we were all in our knickers and when we walk in she and Vernon were--"

"Spare us the details, please!" Sirius said dramatically. "I don't need to hear about horse women and lardy men. I'd like to eat dinner tonight."

"Well, Vernon was wearing less than we were..." Jude trailed off.

"And Tuna, thank God, was under the covers," I added.

"Heaven knows what she had on," Nina laughed.

"Or _didn't_!" Jude howled.

The girls and I were all having trouble walking from the intense giggle fit. James had begun to walk ahead of us, pretending he had no idea who these sad, sad girls were. I was clutching Sirius, trying to keep from falling, so he wasn't going anywhere.

"You know something, Jude?" Remus stopped walking, causing his girlfriend to stop.

She cocked her head to the side and smiled. "What, honey?"

"You," he kissed her cheek. "Are," he kissed her forehead. "A _total_," he kissed her other cheek. "Nutter." With that he leaned in and gave Jude a long, mushy kiss on the lips.

"Moony, we're in public!" James cringed and pretended to vomit.

Sirius just shook his head at his friend, who was still staring intently at his darling Jude. "Are you sure she doesn't have your balls in her bag, mate?"

Lily punched him in the arm. "Don't be jealous just because he's got someone that likes him."

"I think you mean 'luuuurve', Lily," I swooned. "They aren't even in love. They're in luuuurve, babe!"

"Mmmm, yeah," Jude sighed and kissed Remus.

The pair was almost too perfect. It was like they were made for each other. Jude had got Remus out of his shell. More like _pulled_ but all the same. He was now more expressive and found it easier to show his affection in front of everyone. Jude had passed on her crown as Gossip Queen to a sixth year Hufflepuff, Katie Luis. She realised she did not need to know the affairs and goings on at Hogwarts, because all she really needed was her Remus. And he seemed to enjoy all the attention she was giving him. Mind you, they didn't ignore us the way some couples would their friends, but they did spend an awful lot of time together. "Studying" they called it. They were _studying_, but not books. More like studying each other anatomy. Jude said they were going to wait for a while before the whole she-bang, but they were still pretty physical when they were by themselves. One night we asked her if she thought they were moving too fast, and she v. v. wisely responded, "There's no such thing as rushing true love."

Jude was so full of wiseosity when she did that.

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The next morning, all the girls awoke at the same early hour. The entire dormitory was in a dither about the ball. Jude was performing complex hair spells to shorten, bleach, and wave it to look like the era she was dressing in. Lily, who was going with a seventh year Hufflepuff, Andrew Vance, seemed to know what she was doing. She was going as Tinkerbell to his Peter Pan, and her long red hair was at perfect voluminosity for the look she was trying. Nina and Jean-Claude were going as mime/acrobats (well, JC's French, give him a break). She had bought white makeup, deep red lipstick, and was borrowing Lily's pink blush. She had bought long, black and white leggings and a skin-tight black tank top go go with it. Nina made the look work, even for her. She had even died her light blonde hair a dark black to complete her appearance. I had a feeling she was going to keep the hair even after the ball. The French Way was really starting to stick to her. She wore a baret on weekends now, and those ridiculous dark sunglasses, and even worked the micro-mini Mod dresses. The look suited her quite well, I can't lie. And Jean-Claude was v. v. chic. The two always conversed in French when they were alone. It was _très très_ adorable.

I, on the other hand, was going completely mental. All of my friends had stellar costumes, which made them look like actually women with the certain girly parts all women have, while _I _looked like a loon from Pirate Island. In a final act of desperation, I went to the Marauders' dormitory, to tell Sirius I was a total dolt for making him be a pirate with me.

Without knocking, I walked into their room, screamed, and slammed the door. The boys were still getting dressed. Unfortunately, the only one who seemed to be naked from the bottom down and had his back turned to me was my _brother_. And I had seen his arse. Ugh. I knocked again.

"Sorry for not knocking before," I said, completely embarrassed. "James, cover yourself so I can come in? I've got to talk to Sirius."

But instead, the bloke in question came outside, smirking. "That was brilliant, love," he gave me a kiss on the cheek, which made my face get hot. "What can I do for you?"

My face turned even redder, and I looked down at my feet. "You're going to think I'm a total prat for saying this."

Sirius laughed. I luuuurved his laugh. It sounded like a bark, which came as almost no surprise, since his Animagus _was_ a dog. But then you know what he did? He did the eyebrow thing that I _so_ loved. And I almost died. Promise, I almost did. "You know I already think that, Joni."

I punched him on the arm lightly. "Shut up."

"Well, what did you want to ask me?" he laughed again.

"Nevermiiiind," I whined. "It'll be too late." I started to walk downstairs when Sirius grabbed my arm.

"Love, you'd better tell me now," he warned playfully.

I sighed. "You're going to give me endless shit for this, but..." I trailed off.

"But...?"

"Iwannawearadifferentcostume!" I said quickly, hoping he wouldn't catch what I said.

Fat chance.

Sirius' face soon adorned a knowing grin. "Finally came around, eh?" he quirked an eyebrow. I almost snogged him right there, seriously.

I shrugged. "It's just..."

He put a finger to my lip. "Say no more, babe." he smiled. "We'll grab a quick breakfast and go round to Hogsmeade right after, okay?"

I smiled. "You're sooo wonderful. Thank youuu, I'd hate to go to the ball and look like a bloody prat."

"You always look like a bloody prat."

"Shut up!"

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Within an hour, Sirius and I had made our way through one of the school's many hidden passageways, until we made our way to Honeydukes' basement. I was wearing my green pea-coat and red sweatpants. I decided to don the Christmas gear early. Sirius and I brought the pirate costumes with us, to exchange for new ones. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, going to a costume shop to exchange on Halloween, but Sirius and I weren't the smartest people, so it worked out.

When we arrived, the store was, surprisingly enough, still fully stocked. We began to browse around just as we had a few weeks ago, but this time with more urgency. He begged me again to do the Sir and Lady gig, but I refused wholeheartedly. It was a last resort.

"Why, love?" Sirius pouted. "It'll be a riot. You said you wanted to look pretty, right?"

"I know, but I won't be able to enjoy myself in a three-foot wide dress," I patted him on the head. "We've got to disco, babe. Not stuffy waltzes or anything."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Fine," he grumbled, but suddenly his face was much cheerier.

"Wha?" I looked in the same direction he was and soon had a smile to match his.

We had found the costumes of the century. We quickly exchanged costumes, and left Hogsmeade, feeling very elated with our costume idea.

"We will be the talk of the town in these, love," I smiled as I looked into the bag at my beyond groovy outfit. "It's going to be wild!"

"It's absolutely hilarious that muggles dress this way, though," Sirius laughed. "Just look at it! Who could wear that?"

"John Travolta," I smirked. "Maybe not as flamboyant..."

"Who?" Sirius quirked an eyebrow.

"That's the trouble with you, Black," I patted his head lightly. "You don't know anything about muggles."

When we returned to the castle, I ran into Rebecca Green, who gave me another note from her brother. I got another speech from Sirius about his cock-and-bull, and then a rant about how much he liked me from Jude and the girls. It was only my second time hearing it, and I was already tired of their constant nagging.

Robbie's note read, _To Whom It May Concern: Deepest apologies, miss. You know how perverts like me enjoy worshipping goddesses. Yes, you have been promoted from Sex Kitten to Sex Goddess. But take note, you are now in the ranks with Farah Faucet and Twiggy. Be honoured. And to celebrate your new title, I expect you to save a dance for me tonight. If not, I'll be forced to throw myself off the Astronomy Tower, for the lady I worship does not love me. I'm sure your wife will agree than you are, indeed, a goddess and deserve to be treated as thus. Tell me about your Christmas plans, beautiful. Meet me under the mistletoe, Robbie._

I giggled as I read it. Twiggy was not only one of my fashion idols, but was Robbie's almost pathetic obsession. I'd be damned if he didn't wank off to pictures of her. Maybe that's a bit extreme, even for Robbie. All the same, Twiggy was his first true love. I think she may have ruined him for all other women. I wrote him back right away.

_Lowly Mortal, you really need to find yourself a girl, mate. I hear a Rebecca Green is still unspoken for? (I know you want to bathe yourself after that.) Sex Goddess now? Ooer, you're making me blush. Highly inappropriate, as goddesses do not blush. Also, as goddess, I must thank my oh-so-modest worshippers with a dance. Therefore, take a number and get in line, baby. There's enough of me to go around at the ball. The wife seems to agree with your praise, but however, wishes for you to sod off. Which I, as a goddess, find most rude. The Yuletide Cheer will begin after midnight tonight, which is the start of November. Meaning, only one month and twenty-five days until the loveliest day of the year. I shall send you my list tomorrow morning, so be ready for a shopping extravaganza. I have high hopes from you, since I'm your goddess now. Mistletoe? Possibly. Like, I said, take a number. Sex Goddess._

I ran downstairs to find anyone who was leaving so they could give him the note. Unfortunately, the only ones that were either leaving or coming in were the treacherous girls from years one to four. Amongst the sea of pre-pubescent girls, I found a familiar redhead.

"Oi, Bill!" I shouted. Weasley turned to see me, and smiled coyly. "Hey, dear, how are you?"

He grinned wider. "Fine, thanks. Yourself?"

"I'm fabulous! You excited for the ball tonight?" I asked sweetly.

"Uh huh!" Bill nodded quickly. "I'm going as a vampire."

"What a good idea!" I patted the first year on the head. "Do you have a date?"

Bill looked surprised. "You're not askin' me to the ball, are you?"

I laughed. "Oh, no, love. Just making conversation."

"Oh," he seemed a bit disheartened. "I'm going with Meredith Hughes in Hufflepuff."

"Yes, know her," I lied. "She's very nice." Of course, I had absolutely no idea who she was. Bill was the only first year I could tell apart from the others, probably because of his red hair and how he and my dad were friends. I asked Bill to deliver the letter since he was leaving, which he promised to do as soon as he could. I gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder before returning upstairs to my dorm.

The moment I was inside, a huge black dog jumped on me and began to cover my face with his slobber.

"Fuck, Sirius!" I swore as I pushed the dog off of me. "Was that necessary?"

The dog barked playfully, and began to chase his tail in reply. I couldn't help but laugh. Sirius _was_ an adorable dog.

"Aww, wookit the wittle Snuffles," I cooed at the Animagus as I pet him on the head. Sirius seemed to like the name I gave him. He barked happily again, before changing back into his natural state.

"Snuffles?" he laughed. "Cute name, babe." He put an arm around me as we sat on my bed. It was ten o' clock, everyone was still out at breakfast.

"Sooo, what can I do for you?" I questioned the incredibly gorgeous bloke on my bed.

Sirius shrugged as he began to lie down, and pulled me with him. "You like this, don't you?" he asked.

I gave him a strange look. "What?"

"This," he placed an arm around my waist and hugged me close so that my face was mere centimetres away from his. My eyes stared deeply into his silver ones. I could have died right then if I wanted to. "You like cuddling with me, don't you?" his warm breath tickled my face.

I closed my eyes for a moment, inhaling his smell. Phwoar, he was intoxicating. I'd have ravished him right there if I hadn't been in my right mind. But then again, I never was when the moment was opportune.

"Mmm," I sighed deeply and cuddled into his chest. He placed his chin on top of my head and kissed the very top of it. "Let's stay like this for a while," I yawned. I had never ever felt so content in my life. it was perfect how he would just come and snuggle me the way he did, without me asking, or any work on my part. It was like he had a sixth sense about when I needed a hug, or an embrace, or just to rest with him. Our relationship was more than I could ever ask for, even just as friends. Sirius Black was an amazing guy. I could have spent forever just the way we were. And he didn't seem too eager to move either.

For a few hours, nobody surprisingly enough, came up to the room, so Sirius and I talked quietly on the bed for that time. Mostly about nothing; how we felt about this, that, and the other. It was windy and a nippy outside, just as autumn here always was. Sirius told me how excited he was for the holidays, just so he could have some time to relax with everyone.

"Especially me," I laughed quietly.

"Of course." I didn't have to see his face to know he was grinning brightly.

Both my hands were resting against his chest, and one of his was running through my hair, which I had decided to grow almost as long as Lily's. Last year I had done the Farah Faucet look and the summer before that I'd pulled off a very "Mod" hair-do. I'd opted for a more 'hippie' look this year. It was easier to deal with, surprisingly. I liked having it incredibly straight with my bangs sitting over my forehead. The look, to me, was relaxed and calm, something I enjoyed. I felt Sirius bring a few pieces of my hair up to his nose and inhaled the smell of my shampoo deeply, seemingly enchanted by it.

"You know, I've always loved your hair, Jo," he told me.

I looked up at him. "Yeah?" I smiled. "Even when I did that ridiculous pigtail thing in second year?"

Sirius smiled. "Even then. Remember when I used to pull them in Charms all the time?"

"I gave you such shit for doing that!" I laughed. "I'd always turn around to yell at you and you had that _stupid_ grin on you face..."

"That was my seductive smile that would make you fall for me," he remembered. "I've perfected the technique now, of course."

"What makes you say that?" I smiled.

Sirius looked down at me intently. "Because you've fallen madly in love with me, haven't you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, yes, Sirius," I giggled. "Your charm was just too much to bear."

His eyes danced with laughter. "I thought as much," he chuckled as he places my head under his chin again.

I sniffed his sweater deeply. "You always smell so pretty," I yawned.

"And you always get tired when we cuddle."

"I get to so relaxed though. You're like a pillow, but better."

"Glad to be of service."

We drifted into silence again, simply enjoying the pleasure of the other's company. My cat, Samson, made his way into the room, mewed, and jumped onto the bed on top of us, to enjoy the heat our bodies were providing.

"Hey, sweetie," I cooed to my orange tabby, who purred and closed his eyes.

"Sleep?" Sirius yawned. "Not a bad idea..."

"Mmm." I barely heard what he said. The combined comfort of Samson and Sirius was enough to put me to sleep.

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"Hurry up!" Lily yelled as she banged the bathroom door. It was nearly time for the ball, and I was still fixing up my makeup, trying to glam it up as much as possible. I hadn't told anyone about my and Sirius' costume change. They were all in a big surprise. I grinned as I applied even more lipstick. _'If I hadn't fallen asleep with Sirius earlier, I'd probably be in the Great Hall now,'_ I groaned inwardly. Still, the time with Sirius was so so enjoyable, I didn't care. Finally pleased with my appearance, I walked out of the bathroom, to greet three shocked faces, all belonging to my roommates.

"You like?" I struck a pose.

I stood in a shimmering silver disco catsuit. There was a very low V-neck that went down to my sternum, helping my chest look bigger. (**A/N:** It sounds kind of low, but it's really not. Joni's pretty flat.) The costume had enough sequins and glitter to make Liberachi proud. I wore shoes to match, platform, of course. They were a bitch to walk in, but it was just for one night. Besides, I was a groovy dancer, so I was pretty confident I'd be fine wearing them all night. I wore silver lipstick, eye makeup, and had spinning silver stars on the ends of my eye, near my ears. I even charmed my hair to become a silver afro. I was completely pleased with my outfit.

"You look _amazing_!" Lily squealed as she hugged me. Her costume was very realistic, her face was sparkling with green and gold and she had on ruby red lipstick. The green dress she wore almost looked like leaves, and was quite short, but didn't look vulgar. Nina, who had shown us her costume the day before, looked as good as ever. She had found long, white gloves to wear with her costume, which, I think, completed the look. Jude looked _dahhhhling_ in her maroon dress and skullcap. And as I predicted, her legs looked fab. She was wearing pumps that I knew she would be dying to pull off by the end of the night.

"I thought you were going to be a pirate?" Nina queried.

I shrugged. "Sirius and I exchanged them today for these." I gestured to my costume, before adding with a wink, "You should see what _he's_ wearing."

We all walked down the stairs, Jude and I moved slowly because of our ridiculous shoes, into a common room of fellow Gryffindors dressed like monsters, ghouls, nurses, devils, etc. James was with his date, a fifth year Prefect, Gemma Brown. Lily looked warily at the pair, as the vampire James Potter was talking animatedly with his Vampire Bride. I could sense some jealousy, which I think, was the approach James was going for.

Remus soon joined us, and I told him how jealous I was of his suspenders before snapping them across his chest, _hard_. He didn't seem to appreciate it, but he laughed it off after the initial pain went away. When Nina asked if Peter was coming, Remus shrugged, still unsure what was wrong with their Wormtail.

"He didn't tell us anything when we asked," Remus explained and James nodded.

"Poor bloke didn't even talk when we asked who he was going with and why he wasn't wearing a costume," James sounded seriously worried.

"I'm sure he'll come around," Jude said cheerily. "You look good, sweetie." she told Remus.

"Ladiessss, I have arrived!" I heard a familiar voice come from behind me.

I turned to see my date, Sirius Black, looking _almost_ as fabulous as me. He wore a gold tight pants and a long-sleeve Lycra shirt to match instead of the silver catsuit I had on, and hadn't done any kind of makeup, but wore a gold afro wig. We winked at each other and everyone complimented our amazing costumes.

We sort of did a hair high five, causing Sirius' wig to fall off. "You goof," I smiled at him.

"Right, let's get this party started!" Jude shouted before the lot of us filed out of the common room and into the hallway. There, Lily met Andrew, and Nina met Jean-Claude. Andrew gave Lily a kiss on the cheek, and James looked like he was about to throttle the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain. I gave Nina and Jude a knowing look. We all knew James was growing on Lily more and more, but she refused to admit the fact that she had a new founded soft spot for my brother.

When were all situated, we walked to the Great Hall. The staff had really outdone themselves with putting the ball together. It looked like a disco that Lily had taken me and the girls to last summer, complete with disco ball, lasers, and that mad dancefloor that had the neon light squares. There were tables for people to sit in, along with chairs along the exit wall.

"This is fab!" Nina exclaimed.

"C'mon, let's dance, love," Jude yanked Remus onto the dancefloor before he had the chance to protest.

The rest of us laughed at the pair and made our way over to a table. Instantly, food appeared at the table. Flitwick had definitely charmed the tables to do that, we saw it happening all over the Great Hall. James and Gemma seemed to be enjoying themselves, she was whispering something in his ear that he found extremely hilarious. Lily tried to ignore him, but I could tell she was holding herself back from beating Gemma into a bloody pulp. A few people walked by and complimented Sirius and I on our costumes, and we attempted another hair high-five, which failed miserably again.

"Let's go dance," I commanded as Sirius put his wig back on.

He jumped up happily and led me into the sea of dancing fools. We found Remus and Jude, who seemed to having a fabulous time. Jude was teaching Remus how to dance with her, and he seemed to be catching on quickly. I started the side shuffle, and Sirius joined in. Before I could finish, he picked me up and spun me around. I laughed hysterically when he put me down and mimicked the hip jerking and extended arm movements that John Travolta worked in his famous disco flick. Nina, Jean-Claude, Andrew, and Lily, soon followed us onto the dancefloor.

"Boogie Vonderland!" Jean-Claude cheered in that thick French accent of his. Oh, dear, I loved him.

The Hustle came on, and nearly everyone jumped up to dance the simple groove. Lily, Nina and I pulled Jude away from Remus long enough to tell her, "We made up a smashing routine to this, you can dance with Remus later!"

We all remembered the moves we made up all those months ago in July, and completely tore up the dancefloor. Our dates laughed at us.

"You're all insane!" Sirius howled.

"We need the bison horns!" Nina whined after a triple spin and an arse wiggle. "it's just not the same without them!"

"We're still workin' it, girl!" Jude shouted back.

"Everyone's watching us, see?" I laughed.

It was true; people had started to step back to make way for our synchronised, funky and fresh dance moves to the records being spun. It was such excitement being the centre of attention. I started to feel like Travolta in _Saturday Night Fever_. It was such bliss.

Suddenly the music stopped. There were boo's and hisses heard around the Great Hall. We wanted our music back!

_At times I was afraid_

_I was petrified!_

_Kept thinking I could never live_

_Without you by my side!_

Almost the entire population of females in the Great Hall screamed in excitement, especially the girls and I. We all grabbed our dates, and Gemma joined us girls, wanting to get in on the action as well. James and our dates all seemed unsure of what was going on, but they all caught on quick enough to groove with us. The girls and I all wailed the lyrics to the beginning with every other girl present, and began to do a sort of Hustle.

Nearly an hour later, the girls and I (minus Nina, who had disappeared with Jean-Claude a few songs back) were still dancing the night away, The Marauders all were tired of watching us dance, and went to talk amongst themselves. For some reason, discoing made us all so relaxed and free. We were all having the time of our lives, soaking up the euphoria that is dancing.

Jude went to sit down first, her shoes were bruising her feet, followed by Gemma, who was quite fun when she wasn't with fraternising with my brother. Lily and I were the final two, still enjoying ourselves immensely. Sirius finally had to come and pull me off the dancefloor, saying I was going to bust a hip with all the swivelling they were doing.

"Let's go talk," he begged me.

I rolled my eyes. "Fiine, I _guess_ I could--"

"Kitten!"

I turned to see the man himself, Robbie Green, in a toga and a olive branch crown, and Birkenstocks as his Roman sandals. I ran over to him gleefully, and he picked me up from hugging me so tightly. "Robbieeee!" I squealed, completely oblivious to the incredibly angry Sirius stalking off with Lily to our table.

"You look smashing, goddess," he grinned.

"What's with the look, Caesar?" I giggled.

"I'm Marc _Anthony_, thanks very much," Robbie huffed. "I was hoping _you_ were going as Cleopatra."

I rolled my eyes. "Wrong millennium, mate," I gave him a kiss on the cheek. "_Christ_, I haven't seen you in forever! You got my last note, right?"

He nodded. "I'm eagerly anticipating your Christmas list,"

"Good to know."

"Want a drink?" Robbie asked, placing an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close.

"Sounds lovely," I grinned at him as we made our way to the other side of the Great Hall, away from the group I came with.

We sipped some punch and chatted, before I said I was still really hot. "Can we go outside?" I asked. "It's quieter out there anyway."

Robbie grinned deviously. "If you want a snog, Jo, all you need to do is ask."

I scoffed. "With _you_? We goddesses can do much better than that."

We walked arm in arm out of the Great Hall, and went to the field, a few steps away. The cool autumn air caressed my face lightly and I sighed. The dancefloor had been incredibly hot and I was thankful I didn't have any B.O. or wasn't dripping with sweat. Robbie sat down on the cool grass and gestured for me to do the same. My platform shoes made my arse too far away to sit, so I sort of fell instead of sat down.

"Soo, how have you been?" Robbie asked.

I shrugged. "It's been a bunch of everything. Remus planned Jude a surprise party at Hogsmeade, and now they're dating... Sirius is being himself, and James turned down off his Prat Switch. The girls are doing fine."

"You didn't answer my question, sweets," Robbie chuckled and pulled me close, leaning his mouth next to my ear. I could feel and hear him breathing slowly. "How have _you_ been?"

I bit my lip. I was a little confused with Robbie's behaviour. Though he wasn't groping me or being the pervert Sirius claimed he was, I could tell things were heading in the direction of snogging.

"Erm, I've been good," I said plainly, trying to hide my nervousness. "Just lots of stuff to think about."

"Stuff like what, kitten?" he asked playfully and brought his hand to my cheek, He moved my face so it was almost touching his. It was dark enough for him to not notice me blushing.

I shrugged again. "Dunno."

Robbie laughed. "You're too gorgeous, love," he told me, bringing our faces closer together. My mind started racing. _'Fuck, shit, bollocks. What am I doing?'_ my brain shouted. _'I've got to get out of this!'_

Thinking fast, I pulled myself to my feet, stumbling in my shoes. "Well, I promised you a dance, didn't I?" I smiled awkwardly at the boy who had almost nearly kissed me.

Robbie looked taken aback at my sudden elevation, but stood up nonetheless and let me lead him back into the Great Hall. I was still as hot as ever when I walked back in. I noticed Jude and Remus in a corner, snogging each others brains out, and everyone else was sitting at the same table, talking. Shockingly enough however, Gemma was sitting on James' lap. Lily continued to glare at the brunette and Sirius looked really upset about something. I wondered what was bothering him, but Robbie pulled me onto the dancefloor too quickly for me to talk to Sirius.

We ended up dancing for longer than I expected, Robbie was _really good_. He kept doing all these intense moves I couldn't keep up with, but eventually a slow song came on and I told him I had to dance with Sirius for one of these.

"Go find your date, you pimp," I pinched his cheek.

"Oh, please," Robbie laughed, "she's probably off snogging Lestrange or something."

I raised an eyebrow. "Who would you take that would rather snog Lestrange?"

"Bellatrix Black."

"You took _her_?" I almost screamed in surprise. Sirius' cousin, Trixie we called her, was absolutely mad. She found immense pleasure in hexing first years, even in her own house, and somehow never got caught. Most of the students at school, even the blokes, were terrified of Trixie Black.

He shrugged. "She asked me. I wasn't keen on going with her, but she would've castrated me if I hadn't. Besides, she needed someone to make Lestrange jealous."

I laughed. "You're mad. Go find some other girl then, I've got to dance with _my_ date." I walked off to find Sirius, who seemed to be very upset. He wasn't talking with anyone, and he didn't even look up when I went to sit next to him.

"What's got you in such a bad mood, eh?" I gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Sirius grunted in response and jerked his head to where Robbie was dancing with a girl dressed like an exotic belly-dancer.

"Babe, he's my friend, we just had a chat outside for a few minutes," I assured Sirius. "Why in the world would I ditch you to snog him?"

He sort of shrugged, not totally convinced.

"Stop being such a bloody child and come dance with me," I begged. "It's a slow song, it's no talent required."

Sirius sighed. "Fiiine," he groaned, but then smirked. "Only because you'd look like a bloody tart out there by yourself."

I grinned back. "That's my snookie-baby! C'mon." I took his hand and pulled him up.

We walked slowly into the sea of couples and finally stopped. Sirius wiggled his eyebrows at me, and I giggled as I wrapped my arms around his neck. He smirked and put his arms around my waist, and pulled me close. A small shock of electricity went up my spine. One of his hands was moving up and down my back slowly, an almost sickeningly sweet gesture. We locked eyes the entire time, not speaking, just staring at each other. I thought I would melt right there. Sirius raised an eyebrow and grinned down at me. He brought his face down to me so our lips were _nearly_ touching. My breathing hitched. I would **SO** rather kiss Sirius than Robbie. And I almost did! But someone came and pushed Sirius from behind, getting the two off balance. We both looked behind him angrily, wondering who would push him unless they had a beating in mind. I would put in my two sense as well after they stopped on my wildest dreams from occurring.

"Oh, _quelle suprise_," I rolled my eyes and glared at the biggest prat I had ever met, Rodolphus Lestrange.

"What the fuck, Lestrange?" Sirius glared at the seventh-year Slytherin with great disdain.

That arse just chuckled. "Was I interrupting anything, mate?" he said maliciously.

"Sod off, you git," Sirius snapped back. "I hear Snivellus is pretty lonely back in the common room, why don't you go comfort your boyfriend?"

"Odd," Lestrange began, "If _I'm_ with Snape, why'd I catch him shagging your girl last night?"

"Don't _ever_ talk about Jo like that," Sirius growled lowly.

Lestrange looked surprisingly confident. I shot him the iciest glare I could manage while slowly reaching for my wand. If that bastard tried to do anything to Sirius I'd be there to stop him.

"Ooh, so she _is_ your girl then?" Lestrange scoffed. "Even after what she did with that Ravenclaw?"

"That's the biggest pile of shit I've ever heard!" Sirius was red with rage.

Lestrange started to cackle, which sounded more like a weasel in pain than a laugh. "Hell, after fucking Snape and Green, you think I could have a go at her? Heard she's not too expensive."

That was the final straw. Sirius had had enough of him. Without warning, he pulled out his wand and shouted a hex at the Slytherin, which sent him flying back at least four feet. A huge gang of his fellow Slytherins, including Trixie, ran over to him, but soon ran away in disgust. Sirius had made it so the only things that came out of his mouth were enormous, slimy, disgusting slugs. Bellatrix's eyes instantly shot in the direction of Sirius and I. Her cousin raised his head high, as if challenging her.

"What, Trixie?" Sirius taunted. "Going to tell ol' Sluggy on me?"

Trixie was seething by now, and as fast as she could, took her wand out and pointed it at Sirius. _"Stupefy!"_ she shouted.

But I was quick to stop the spell from hitting Sirius. _"Finite Incantatem!"_ I shouted.

A huge wall came out of my wand, blocking Sirius from the spell Bellatrix had conjured. She glared at me, but before she could do anything, Professors Hooch and McGonagall came running into the chaos. A crowd of people had started to form when Lestrange went flying, and Hooch began to shoo them all away.

"What is the meaning of this?" the Headmistress nearly shrieked. "Miss Black, I'm shocked! Even _you_ know better than to attempt to jinx someone in a crowded room!"

"Professor, Sirius hexed Lestrange!" she argued and pointed at the fallen boy. "Look at him!"

"Oi! He was badgering Joni!" Sirius shot back.

"Detention!" McGonagall said without another word. "For all four of you!" she pointed at Sirius, myself, Trixie, and Lestrange.

"Wait, why _Jo_?" Sirius asked. "She didn't have anything to do with this!"

McGonagall pointed a finger at Sirius. "It would be wise of you to keep your mouth _shut_, Black. I'll expect to see all of you for one week of detention, starting Monday." She began to walk away before adding, "And I am taking twenty points each from all of you. For _extreme_ disregard for the rules and inability to control oneself."

I glared at Trixie and Lestrange before turning to Sirius, who looked extremely upset. "I'm really sorry," he began. I put up a hand to silence him and wrapped my arms around him.

"It's not your fault Lestrange is a git," I said quietly. "And would you rather have detention with just those two prats?"

Sirius smiled at me. "I guess not..."

"See?" I patted him on the back. "It's all ancient history to me now. Besides, it's just a week."

Everyone had heard about what had happened by the time Sirius and I went back to our table. News travels fast.

"I can't _believe_ that bastard!" James fumed. "Where does he get off?"

I grabbed my brother's arm to calm him down. "Let's just forget about it, okay? We can't let shit like that ruin our night."

Lily nodded wisely. "She's right, who needs to think about those idiots when we could be having a good time?"

"Let's go dance, Lils," Andrew stood up and pulled Lily with him. I waved her off, and caught her glance at an angry James before going off to dance with her date.

James whispered something into Gemma's ear, she blushed lightly and nodded. The two left the Great Hall to do Merlin knows what. Sirius seemed oblivious to the whole thing, while Jude, who had just returned with Remus and pointed behind her at James leaving with someone who _wasn't_ Lily. I shrugged and the two sat down. Remus said Trixie and Lestrange had left as well ("No doubt to shag and think of ways to kill me," Sirius said).

"This has been fun though, hasn't it?" Jude said happily. "Everyone's costumes are so groovy!"

I rolled my eyes. "Please, as if _you've_ been able to look at costumes while you're sucking on Remus' face?" I teased.

Jude huffed. "For your information, we weren't just snogging."

"Moony, you know it's highly inappropriate to shag someone in public," Sirius wagged a finger.

Remus turned red. "We were just talking," he defended himself.

"Course you were," Sirius laughed. "And I'm Louis XIV."

"Off with his head!" I pointed at him and laughed.

As the night wore on, more and more people began to leave, Lily and Andrew being two of them. I rolled my eyes at Jude, who returned the look. We were going to give Lily a _long_ scolding for this. And I'd find some way to pull James aside and tell him to stop pratting and ask her out. I think he was doing this on purpose. This year, he was buggering Lily less and less. She pretended to relieved to have a break from my brother's antics, but anyone with half a brain (i.e., not the Marauders) could tell she was extremely jealous. The other Mad Hatters believed James had finally taken their advice and moved on, but the girls all knew what he was doing. It was probably the smartest thing I had ever seen my brother do. I was proud of him.

"Babe!"

All four of us turned around to see Robbie walking towards our table, his eyes focused on me. I smiled at him and waved him over. Sirius' face went from elated to completely cheerless. I gave him a look as if to say 'Be nice!' and stood to give Robbie a hug.

"Hey, didn't I just see you, mate?" I smiled at him.

"Well, yeah," he sat down in the chair next to me, earning a glare from Sirius. "But I saw what happened with Lestrange. You okay?"

I nodded and took a sip of my punch. "Starting to regret going with her yet?"

Sirius glared even more darkly at Robbie. "She's your _date_, man?"

Robbie put up his hands in defence. "Hey, it's not like I didn't want to say 'no', because, _trust me_, I did."

"Why didn't you then?" Sirius demanded.

"I had my manhood to consider, mate," Robbie cringed. "You really think your cousin would let me _decide_ if I wanted to go with her?"

"He's got a point," I told Sirius, trying to calm him down, but he just mumbled something and then turned away from Robbie and me. I shrugged it off and we continued our conversation. I felt rude blowing Sirius off like that, but if he wasn't going to make an effort with being nice to Robbie then it was his loss.

"Excited for the Quidditch game next Saturday?" I asked. He was Captain of the Ravenclaw team, as well as their Chaser. His team was playing Gryffindor, and though the rivalry between our houses was nowhere near as bad as between us and Slytherin, our games always proved to be very interesting.

"I just hope Gryffindor's ready for a beating," Robbie smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please. My brother may be dim in his classes, but he's been working on new plays all bloody summer. There's no way we'll lose."

The season had begun last week, with Gryffindor beating Slytherin, 270-190. James was ready to lead his team into victory this year. He was incredibly determined to win the Quidditch Cup and nothing was going to get in his way.

Remus and Jude left the table to go dancing again, leaving Sirius with me and Robbie. I could have sworn I heard Remus say, "Stop being a prat," to Sirius before he left. My date, though, was still being too stubborn for his own good. I knew Robbie could sense the tension Sirius was creating, but tried to ignore it. We both attempted several times to include Sirius into the conversation, but failed each time. He was being ridiculously childish now, but I didn't want him to snap at me if he was having a mood-swing.

I leaned toward Robbie. "Hey, is it cool if I catch ya later?" I whispered. "Sirius is being a baby, he just refuses to talk when you're around."

Robbie glanced at Sirius before nodding. "S'alright. I'll owl you, yeh?"

I smiled. "Sounds good."

"Excellent," Robbie started to get up. "Later then?"

"S'later."

He gave me a kiss on the cheek before walking over to some of his mates. I turned to Sirius, who was glaring at Robbie as he walked away.

"Why do you hate him so much?" I asked, drawing him out of his one-sided staring contest.

He tried not to make eye contact with me. "I just don't trust 'em," Sirius grumbled.

"But you just _saw_ that he wouldn't try anything on me," I tried convincing him. "And I told you when we were outside all we did was talk." I had decided it was best for him not to know about my almost-kiss with Robbie. He hated the kid enough already, he didn't need actually proof to his theory.

"Whatever," my date shrugged, then raised his eyes up to mine. "Wanna head back?"

I yawned and nodded. "It's getting late," I said. "What time is it?"

"Ten to midnight," Sirius told me, looking at his watch.

"Yeah, let's get these shoes and stuff off. We can take a walk around the grounds later tonight, want to?"

He smiled. "Love to. I can't believe I wore shoes like these," he sighed as we left the Great Hall.

"Neither can I!" I laughed. "But it's Halloween. You're _supposed_ to wear a ridiculous outfit you would never be caught dead in."

"I had fun though," Sirius put an arm around me.

I rested my head on his shoulder, mindful to keep my afro out of his face. "Me too."

We walked the rest of the way to the Gryffindor tower in silence. There were a few people lolling around, all of them had changed out of their costumes and donned pyjamas or more comfortable clothing. I told Sirius I would come up to his room when I was ready, and we both went to change for our walk.

I pulled on sweatpants I used for the yoga classes I took with Jude over the summer, and a white thermal shirt. It was cold outside, so I pulled on wool boots a fmy mum had bought me in Australia, and my school scarf. This time I knocked on the Mad Hatters' door just as a precaution, and Sirius let me in.

"I'm almost ready," he said as he opened the door. "My shoes were a bitch to take off."

"No problem, I--" I froze when I saw Sirius in only his skivvies (**A/N: **meaning in his underwear!). He was facing me, which gave me a _very_ nice view of his chest. Phwoarrr, how had I not noticed how fit he was when he had on his school shirt? I could tell he was pretty toned and lean, but I don't think I could have pictured him looking like... oh, fuck, I didn't even know! But I knew one thing; he was puuuurrrfect. Sirius turned around to grab his shirt off his bed, which snapped me back into reality, if only for two seconds. I looked down, and smirked appreciatively at his rear end.

"Nice butt, Black," I said smoothly.

Sirius laughed. "Thanks. And it it's any consolation, yours is almost as nice."

Oh, damn. I hadn't been expecting that. He turned around after pulling his pants on and caught me blushing. "No need to be modest, babe." Sirius hugged me close and gave my bum a delicate pat. "I'd never noticed until tonight. That catsuit was a good choice."

My face only turned redder. "Shut uuup," I wiggled out of his grasp. "Next you'll be going on about my tits or something. DON'T!" I pointed an accusing finger at his mouth, which started to open. He was _obviously_ going to mention the body part in question.

Sirius put his hands up in defeat. "Fine, don't let me shower you with the praise you _so_ deserve."

"Let's go, pervert," I threw his shoes at him, which he caught, and started to walk out.

"Oi, wait up!" He shouted back at me. I was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs when he came stumbling down, hopping on one foot while he tied his shoe on the other.

"You're pathetic."

Sirius grinned cheekily. "But you still love me."

"Unfortunately," I took his hand. "C'mon."

Sirius took out the Marauders' Map to make sure we wouldn't have any professors or Filch coming after us. We took a slightly longer route downstairs because McGonagall was patrolling a hallway that we used as a shortcut. We were walking past deserted classrooms when we suddenly heard a loud _BANG!_ come from one. I froze.

"What was that?" I whispered.

Sirius looked at the map and grinned. "Looks like Prongs is getting lucky." He pointed to a classroom that was two doors ahead of us. I saw two names, James Potter and Gemma Brown, almost on top of each other in the room.

I smirked. "Let's pay them a visit, hmm?"

Sirius nodded in agreement. We both tiptoed over to the door where the canoodlers were, grinning all the way.

_"Alohamora!"_ I whispered.

The door unlocked, and Sirius swung the door open, to find my twin with his date on top of a desk, his glasses on the ground and Gemma's dress riding up her thighs. It looked like they were sucking each other's faces off, and I almost gagged. That was my _brother_.

James was surprised to see us, while Gemma looked like she wanted to melt onto the floor.

"Ha HA!" Sirius shouted triumphantly. "Finally getting some after six years of celibacy here, eh? Good man!" he approached his friend and pat him on the back. Gemma was trying to sneak out slowly without being noticed; she had turned a bright fushia from embarrassment. I let her go, knowing she didn't need to be anymore humiliated than she was.

"James, you're such a hussy," I teased my brother, whose face was starting to match the colour Gemma had turned.

"Seriously, Prongs, _what_ were you doing?" Sirius howled.

James picked his glasses off the floor and gave us an almost pathetic look. "Please, don't tell Lily?"

I rolled my eyes. "You kidding? She's probably off making babies with Andrew. I doubt she'd care."

James' head fell.

"You know, they have 'gullible' written on the ceiling," I told my thick brother.

"Where?" Sirius looked up abruptly, eyes scanning the ceiling of the classroom. "I don't see it!"

I hit him on the head. "You're so dim. I'm telling James that I was _lying_, you dolt."

Sirius gave a quiet "oohh," before taking out the Marauders' Map and looking over it. He smiled. "See, mate? She's not with that Vance bloke! Don't worry about it!"

I glanced at the map at the same time James did, but neither of us were smiling when we saw where she was. Even Sirius hadn't looked at the name of whom my best friend was with.

"SNAPE?" we all shouted.

"I'll kill him!" James raged.

"What the hell?" Sirius was dumbfounded.

I stopped the maddest of the Hatters from pursuing the pair. "Look," I told them, "I'm sure there's a legitimate, non-romantic reason Lily's with him, okay?"

"How can you be sure?" James asked in panic. "What if they're doing... _things_ together?" he and Sirius shuddered.

"Because, unlike you lot, _I_ noticed how bloody jealous she looked when she saw you and Gemma together, James. Meaning she wouldn't do anything with the greaseball."

My twin perked up. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Positive. She looked really miffed when she saw you leave with her too."

James punched a fist in the air. "Yes! My plan's working!"

"Reverse psychology?" I asked.

He nodded. "I mean, Gemma's nice and everything. Good snog too..." he reminisced. "but I only asked her so I could show Lily I'm not totally in love with her anymore."

"But you are," Sirius reminded him.

James tapped his nose lightly and pointed at Sirius. "But she doesn't know that, does she? I haven't asked her out _once_ this year!"

I clapped for him. "Very commendable."

"Thanks, sis," James kissed me on the forehead in that weird brotherly way he always did. "I'm gonna go back to the common room. See ya later."

"'Night," I said as all three of us left the empty classroom, and James walked in the direction we had just come.

"Oi, that was good," I giggled quietly.

"Who knew ol' Prongsie had it in him to snog another girl?" Sirius laughed as we walked into the cool air outside.

"Mmm, this is a nice breeze," I sighed as we continued to walk around the lawn.

Sirius started to laugh lightly, then pulled both of us onto the grass.

"Oi, now I'll have stains on my arse!" I whined.

"Shh," he put a finger to his lips and lay down flat on the ground. "Look at the stars."

I looked up, and sure enough, the clear sky was showing an amazing view of thousands of stars. It was so beautiful. "Wow," I whispered.

"I know, isn't it?" Sirius pulled an arm around me, bringing me closer. "Can you find any constellations?" he asked.

I squinted up, trying to find any, and nodded. I pointed to three bright stars. "There's Orion's Belt. And Orion's right there." I connected the stars to show Sirius where he was.

"What else?" he said into my hair.

"Well, I can see the Ursa Major and Minor, the Big and Little Dippers," I pointed to two almost ladle-ish constellations, one bigger than the other. "Divination's a really good subject, you'd like it. I mean, we already learn about the constellations in Astrology, but Divination explains them and how they affect our lives." I told Sirius.

"I'd prefer the free periods than adding another class," he mumbled and I laughed.

Looking back up at the sky, I showed him Polaris, Gemini and Draco. I was surprised to see Hercules in the sky this late in the year, but he was nearly gone off the horizon.

"Oh, look!" I pointed fiercely. "There's you!"

"Wha?" he sounded confused.

"The constellation Sirius," I explained as I pointed to a cluster of stars and showed him the stars that made up Alpha Canis Major. "Then there's Alpha Canis _Minor_ right there."

"Is that where my mum got my stupid name?" Sirius huffed. "Some stars?"

I rolled my eyes. "You have a lovely name. And I think it's a neat idea to name your children after constellations. I might do that. Maybe Draco for a boy or something. What do you think?" I looked up at Sirius, who shook his head.

"Draco? Please, he sounds like a snake or something," Sirius said. "I think _I'll_ be naming our kids, love."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "And who said I'd ever let you impregnate me?"

"Well you never shot down the idea before," Sirius wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, making me laugh.

"You are so fixed on the idea of having sex with me, aren't you?" I laughed.

"Because you know one day you won't be able to resist my charm anymore," he teased me.

_'Too late,'_ I thought to myself. _'About three years too late.'_

We sat together for a while in the grass, with me occasionally pointing at another constellation occasionally. I had even found the planet Mercury, which looked like an unusually large star. Sirius kept teasing me for my love of Astrology, but I just told him to bugger off. By one o' clock in the morning, we were getting cold, so we retreated back to the common room to talk more before going to bed.

We saw Remus going upstairs, and he asked us if we'd seen Peter, which we hadn't.

"He wasn't at the ball, was he?" I asked worriedly.

Both Marauders shook their head. "Haven't seen him since this morning," Sirius said.

"Me too," Remus ran a hand through his sandy-coloured hair. "If you see him coming up, tell him to wake me up, yeah?"

We both nodded before telling Remus goodnight.

Sirius and I talked for a long time, before I started nodding off while he was telling me a story from when he and Regulus were little and still got along.

"Are you listening?" Sirius nudged me.

I nodded softly and then yawned viciously. "Keep going, it's a good story."

Sirius kissed my forehead and ruffled my no longer silver hair. "You're tired. Go upstairs."

I shook my head no and cuddled closer to Sirius, wrapping my arms around his neck and curled into a ball. "I don't wanna."

"You know I can't get up to your room without turning into my Animagus, and I can't carry you as a dog."

I yawned again. "Then lemme stay here..." I said quietly.

Sirius shook his head. "You're too much, you know that? Here, you can sleep in my bed, I'll sleep on the floor in the room."

"Wha? Nooo, you can stay in the bed with me. We shared a bed last summer, 'member?" my speech was slurred from my tiredness.

The first night Sirius had come to my and James' house after the fiasco with his mother, I insisted he sleep in my room with me. I said he needed someone there with him while he slept. James wasn't keen on the idea. I told him if he wanted to sleep with Sirius that was fine, and I would always respect his lifestyle choice. To preserve his masculinity and help his friend feel more at home, he agreed for Sirius to stay with me for the next. Sirius had cried so hard that night. It was the first time I had ever seen him break down like that. I held him while he let his feelings out, just cradling him in my arms. As he fell asleep, he said he was so glad to have me there to comfort him. My heart swelled at least three times its normal size when he told me, and I said it was the least I could do as he finally went to sleep. I never told anyone this, but I barely slept that night. I watched Sirius sleeping. He was so peaceful and content as he rested the way he had, I almost started to cry myself. I wasn't sure what almost brought me to tears, but then I knew I would never love anyone more than Sirius.

He wrapped his arms around my torso, and under my knees, and lifted me up. "Fine, we'll _both_ stay in my bed. Just don't let James kill me when he sees us in the morning."

I nodded tiredly and yawned. I rested my head on Sirius' chest as he carried me bride-style up the stairs, and down the hallway to the Mad Hatters' room. Snores were coming from James and Remus' beds; Peter was still nowhere to be seen. Sirius laid me down gently onto his bed, took off my scarf and boots, and lifted me so we could both get under the covers. I wasn't wearing socks, so the sudden chill of the room made me shiver and move closer to Sirius, who then put an arm around me, to pull me closer. I sunk deep into the warmth of the covers and Sirius, and felt myself drifting into a welcoming sleep, but not before feeling Sirius' lips kiss my forehead and hearing his voice whisper, "Good night, beautiful."

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PHEW! I wrote most of this today! All day! I feel so accomplished. D

Review! Hope you enjoyed it?

Sorry if Joni and Sirius seem too much like a couple here. I'm setting the tone for the next chapter. Actually, it might not be the next chapter, but it's in the near future.

Also, I might be changing the rating to M soon. Just because I started writing "fuck" alot in this and the next chapter. Lemme know if you think I should.

Kthx.

Jess.


	5. Grande Bisées?

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As planned, I gave out my Christmas List to everyone at breakfast, reminding them that I was being generous by giving them an extra day free of my list. They were usually handed out promptly at midnight on October thirty-first.

"You're ridiculous," Remus laughed as he read the parchment I handed him. "A unicorn?"

"They're real pwetty," I cooed. "I remember when all I wanted for Christmas was young."

"And what would you do with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and three incredibly good looking Frenchmen?" James scrunched his nose up.

"It's none of your business what I do with what you get me, Monsieur 'I put my ickle nose in everyone's business,'" I tutted.

"You know we never get you anything you ask for, right?" Lily reminded me.

"Actually, I could ask Jean to invite some of his cousins here for Christmas," Nina thought aloud. "And I'm sure they have chocolate sauce and whipped cream in France..."

"That's the spirit!" I cheered. "That's why you're my bestest chum, Nina." I tapped her head. "You think like me."

"How's that good?" Sirius joked.

I smiled at him. "I'll ignore that, only because the Yuletide Cheer is running through my veins like water through a babbling brook and I don't want Father Christmas to put me on the Naughty List."

"There's no such thing as Father Christmas," Jude told me. "We go through this every year."

"Yes there iiiiis," I argued. "Saint Nick is _real_. Or at least, he was. Because saints die, don't they? So that means he was around in Baby Jesus Times, and gave Jesus the best present he ever got when he was little, so God made him immortal so he could give everyone else good presents?"

Remus rolled his eyes at me. Sirius and James gave each other a significant look, and Jude put her head in her hands.

"Your spaceship has landed," Lily said as the post began to arrive.

As expected, I received my letter from Robbie:

_Kittie/Goddesss/Love Of My Life,_

_I've hog-tied the unicorn, bought you all that useless jewellery you wanted, and got you the whipped cream and chocolate sauce. I'm hurt that you'd rather share these things with the French and not me!_

_But I Love You All The Same, Robbie_

I stuffed it into my pocket and made a mental note to write back the first chance I got. Jude decided to be Chuckles the Giggling Laugh-whatsit, and gave everyone three chances to guess who my letter was from. And I flicked some porridge her way. That'll teach her.

"Naughty list," she warned.

Damn.

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November had been anything but uneventful. Jude had _her_ Thanksgiving Mania, and I continued my ongoing Christmas Extravaganza. Nina soon caught my bug and we both continued to buzz about like sugarplum fairies. Hogsmeade was in a week, so Sirius and I were beginning to plan our beyond amazing trip. James and Gemma had got a lot friendlier. In fact, they were dating. It was a complete shocker to the school to see my brother with a girl that _wasn't_ Lily, but I still knew James was trying to make her jealous. And though none of the girls would tell him, it was working even better than James could have hoped. Lily was constantly in a huff after being around the two. Her moods were usually perky in the morning, then after a breakfast of my twin and his new "obsession" coddling, she was a complete wreck the entire day. Once she went to sit with some friends in Hufflepuff because she was so profusely sick of "The Gag-Me Brigade." It was silly to watch her slowly become more and more jealous that James had found a new girl to indulge because she refused to admit to us that she could ever feel anything but extreme disdain for my brother. I'd always said they would fall madly in "luuurve," and it looked like I was correct.

Robbie and I began to skip lunch in the Great Hall to eat in the Kitchens and chat. We never got a conversation going with my friends because Sirius was always moping, and Robbie's friends weren't extremely fond of me, being the Gryffindor Quiddith Captain's sister. Jude accused us of snogging on several occasions, but after all of my arguing that we were still friends and if I did fancy him I most certainly would have told them, the girls finally got the hint. Sirius and James still greatly resented the fact that I enjoyed Robbie's company, but I reminded them that they had no hard evidence that he was vile in any shape or form and until they did I would continue being friends with him.

Robbie and I got on swimmingly. We had nearly forgotten the Almost Snog Incident from the Masquerade and were back to our typical banter and innuendo. But we also had a few v. serious adult conversations. It was nice to have a friend outside of my typical group, not because they weren't good friends, but just to have another person to talk to about other things. Robbie was great fun now; he was making me laugh more than I remembered I had in what felt like a while. As we were starting to get so close, I had failed to see who was slowly drifting away from me.

Speak of the devil, Sirius and I had been on pins and needles, oddly enough, the Monday after the Masquerade. That was the first time I didn't do lunch with them to spend time with Robbie. He, Sirius, completely ignored me in our next classes. By dinner he would speak to me, but I could tell he was still angry. Detentions weren't very enjoyable, mostly cleaning rooms or filing papers. Trixie and Lestrange were sent to a different end of the school so we didn't have too much to dither over. But as the week of detentions went on and I spent more time with Robbie during the day, Sirius began to get _really angry_. So angry, that we ended up having a full-on argument that lasted for an hour at the least. I was angry that he was getting angry because I had one friend he didn't like when he would prance about with anyone he pleased. He just got huffy and said Robbie was a bloody cad and div; and also that I should not be associated with that "garbage." And then I called him a stupid ninny who had his head shoved very, very, very, very, very, very, **_very_** far up his bum and that I never wanted to speak to him again unless he could pull it out. So we were officially not on speaking terms. I would never tell him, but I felt completely wretched not talking to my very bestest mate. Even if he was the one who was completely wrong.

After a miserable weekend of projects, extra long essays, and studying for our upcoming exams, we all exhausted Monday morning. And a double period of History of Magic was by far, the worst way to start the day. Unfortunately, none of us had a choice, so we put on as-happy-as-we-can-be faces, and made our way to Professor Binns' room for our lesson. I had walked with Robbie's sister to ask her about an assignment we'd had over the weekend and when we got to class she handed me a note from her brother. She winked and told me that Robbie said this was a note of extreme importance. On the outside he wrote "It's like what Billy Shakes-bum says: 'Too snog, or not to snog?' I showed Lily and she laughed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sirius glaring harshly at me, but tried to ignore it. It wasn't even work acknowledging the fight anymore. So I read Robbie's note without any more thoughts of rude boys named Sirius Orion Black.

_JoJo,_

_Love, I've got an offer you canNOT refuse! I'm going to New Zealand with a few mates for the winter holidays. Want to tag along? Jean-Claude and Nina are going. It'll be yuletiding and eating Vegemite with the koala bears and the like!_

_G'Day, Robbie_

_PS—And apparently the house has got lots of warded, separate rooms. Eh? Eh?_

Ooer, winter holidays? Quite a boyfriend-ish thing to do, which was bizarre since neither of us said anything about us dating. And since when was I the "Luuuurve Of His Life?" And to ask Nina about her not telling her bestest pal about snogging wallabies with her French luuurve. Lily saw me do my so creatively dubbed "about-to-write-back-to-Robbie" look and stopped me.

"_You_ need to pay attention today. You nearly failed the last test he gave us," she chastised.

I stuck my tongue out at her, only to remember than Father Christmas will only give prezzies to the good girls and boys. Bloody conscious. So I began to diligently take notes diligently (Yes, double the diligence. I am just that dedicated.)

Of course, everyone was asleep the moment Professor Binns opened his mouth but I, on the other hand, began writing straight away. Not notes, of course, because who would bother? Robbie's note was on my desk and I tapped my quill on blank parchment, thinking of a response.

I really had no idea if I wanted to go with Robbie for Christmas. While he was a good mate, Christmas was always a time to spend with your _bestest_ mates. And for me that meant spending it at Hoggie _avec_ Jude, Lils, Nina, James, and Remus (**not** that fucking div with the mentality of a grape). But first I had to find out if Nina was going. Because if she was going I could spend Christmas with one of my loverly pals as well as Robbie. I scratched down a quick note and threw it at her. She wrote back just as quickly.

_**Sod! I completely forgot about telling you. Jean and I were chatting about it the other night after-- well, the thing is... that's to say, er... JeanandIshagged? Love, Nina**_

I gave her my owl eyes. She and Jean-Claude had done the _Full Monty_ and she hadn't told me this??! Oh, she was in trouble.

_Nina, It's nice that you tell me these things. Luuuurve, A Very Shocked & A Bit Angry Jo_

_**Jo, Well it's hard to just say! "Yeah, Jean and I did 'le baby-making.'" It just sort of happened after the masquerade. And you were all Yuletide like at breakfast the next morning. And all this sixes and sevens over bloody stupid Sirius "In Need Of A Serious Duffing Up" Black! I didn't want to talk about it. But I swear I meant to tell you. Lily and Jude don't know yet, we can talk about it tonight. With Even More Luuurve From, A Sincerely Sorry Nina**_

_Nina, I could never stay mad at you, dahling. Just tell me when these momentous whatsits happen! Which d'you think I care more about, Christmas Cheer or one of my bestest girlfriends having the sexy time? Erlack, so sorry about Sirius. Is it really necessary to be so bloody rude? With Nowhere Near As Much "Amour" From, A Very Understanding Jo_

_**Jo, Thanks. Did you still want to know about the NZ Phun Phestival? Grande Bisées, Nina**_

_Nina, Who's going? But I don't know if I'll go, it won't be right leaving Lily alone. She's my Singleton Chum. And if I do accept Robbie's invite, we will be in the Almost Quite Nearly Dating Agency. And that would be v. v. rude to leave Lily in the dust as I go riding off into my Datesville Taxi with Robbie. She'd be stuck with Remus and Jude doing kissy-poo, James pretending he doesn't want to kissy-poo with her by doing it with Gemma, Peter getting no kissy-poo, and Sirius getting more than kissy-poo from girls whose names he'll never remember. More Grande Bisées (which is what?), Jo_

_**Jo, Grande bisées is "fat kisses" en français. They say silly things, don't they? Well, Robbie, Jean-Claude, me, Jean's cousin (who is bringing whipped cream) Laurent, Amos Diggory, Orlando Myers, Julian Scarlotti and Meg Franco are all going. I'm not too keen on seeing Amos again, but his family's got a huge farm down there. It's all green hills, sheep, and a big lake. As for Datesville with Robbie, you don't have to. Unless you want to. Do you? Lily will be fine with us going, n'inquiete pas (don't worry). You and I can come back to Hoggie before New Years' if you'd like. And when did Peter come back from wherever he was? Love Is All You Need From, Nina**_

_Nina, Dear Zeus, Diggs? What a stupid wanker. Sirius must be taking how to make everyone hate you lessons from him. As long as he (Amos) stays far away from me I'll go. Sheep, you say? **And** a Frenchman that's not your boyfriend who is bringing whipped cream? I think you've talked me into it, love. And it'll be summer in NZ, won't it? Oh, how splendiliquent! We'll all go skinny dipping on Christmas Morning. Maybe just Laurent et moi will. Ooer, summer Christmas luuurve! I think coming home early is a loverly idea. Lily will no doubt want some of her chums here for New Years'. And Pete? Something about his parents trying to take him out of school. The hullabaloo with this dark wizard on the rise had his mum a little freaked. But he talked them out of it. He'll be back sometime this week. Remus told me last night. I Love You The Best, Jo_

_**Jo, All that's well and good, but you never answered my question. Do you want to date Robbie? I Love You Ya Ya Ya, Nina**_

I re-read her note a few times. _Did_ I want to date Robbie? He was a great laugh, easy to talk to, and from what I hear from other girls, a brilliant snog. He wasn't bad to look at either. But it's odd to think that maybe I could be over Sirius? Or that I knew he was never going think of me more as a friend? Or even that now? A few weeks ago I was completely enamored and head-over-heels for the bloke, and now I was moving over to a new one rapidly after almost three years. Nina saw me deep in thought and wrote me one last note before deciding it was time to catch up on sleep.

_**Jo, You want to, I can tell. And I know for a fact he wants to date you. Just go to NZ and see what will happen. Love, Nina**_

She was quite possibly, the smartest mademoiselle I knew. Even more than Lily. I smiled to myself as I wrote Robbie. When I finished, I read over what I wrote and grinned again. I _was_ over Sirius, the stupid blighter. There's nothing wrong with moving on.

_Dear Robbie,_

_I wish I could go into great length of the indecency in your previous letter, but I would love to accept your invite to New Zealand even more. Nina and I chatted and are now piddling our pantaloonies in excitement. I am a bit upset we'll be spending the holiday in the presence of Amos Diggory. No offence, love, but get better blokes (says the girl who often associates herself with four of the maddest ones in the school). But I will not let Diggory rain on my Christmas parade. Because I will have one of my bestest pallys there, and you as well. Again, thanks for inviting me. What a lovely early Christmas present!_

_With All The Heavenly Love I Can Muster,_

_The Goddess of All That Is Sex, Christmas, and John Travolta Lovin', Joni_

_PS-- Mistletoe, anyone? Ooer._

I fell asleep with a great deal of satisfaction for the rest of class. When that blessed nap and not so blessed class was over, I ran over to Robbie's sister.

"Becca, can you give this to your brother?" I asked.

"Why don't you yourself?" she said. "He's coming down the hallway right now."

I turned around and saw that silly silly bloke coming down the hallway with Jean-Claude. I started to grin from ear to ear, and ran with Nina to greet the two. Jean-Claude and Nina were soon lost in their own little world of kisses and mad luuurve energy. Robbie grinned expectantly, as if _we_ were going to start snogging in the middle of the hallway like our friends. I gave him a "Not In Your Life, Sport" look, and handed him my note.

"I want a response A.S.A.P.," I winked and then walked away.

"You saucy minx!" Robbie accused as I walked off to my next class.

"Wait up, Jo," Jude called after me. She was the only one who took Divination with me because the boys all thought it was a girly class, Lily thought it was porkies (rubbish), and Nina was horrible at it. Not to mention Jude was keen on the professor, which was highly inappropriate (even if he was quite a sex bum).

I started sprinting to the North Tower, with Jude hot on my tail. She was trying to catch up with me, but I refused to let her. All she would do is hound me with questions about Robbie. Nina had given up as of yesterday and Lily was slowly on her way; she was becoming extremely occupied with her Green Monster Syndrome of James and Gemma. Oh, the wonders of James' reverse psychology!

When we reached the Divination classroom, Professor Spektor was already talking in great length about our palm reading. We separated into pairs and began to interpret the possible future of the other.

Jude completely ignored our task at hand (no pun intended!), and turned into the Spanish Inquisition.

"So you were awake last period," she stated. "Obviously not taking notes, because really what's the point? What were you doing?"

"Writing to Robbie. See, Nina and Jean-Claude are going down to New Zealand with a few people for Christmas including Robbie, and he invited me along with. And I don't want to go because I'm going to hate not being here for Christmas, but I want to go, because it's New Zealand, and Jean-Claude's cousin is coming an' some other folks are going and I'd love to spend some time with them... I'll be okay if you hate me for leaving you an' Lils. Nina and I are most certainly coming back in time for New Years' though."

Jude smiled. "Ooh, that'll be fun! The rest of us will have a Very Merry Christmas. Even if we're missing the bestest Christmas Elf ever."

I grinned. "Fanks, hun. I'll send you lot the presents right when I arrive."

"So are you excited to go?" Jude asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. It's weird because Robbie invited me and we talk more through letters than face-to-face, but we're really good friends. And I _don't_ fancy him," I added fiercely.

Jude giggled. "Whatever you say, kid."

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